Hard coral?

[DanH]

I found this hiding under a coral polyp colony frag I recently obtained. At first I thought it was a snail and pulled it out the tank only to reveal a hard white lump stuck on the rock. I cut the rock and placed it at the top of my tank and now its displaying small brown polyps. Apologies about the photo quality but hopefully it is good enough to ID.

It's approx 1/4" in diameter and polyps are no longer than 1/4". To give an idea on scale the piece of rock it's attached to is the size of a childs index finger.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Anonymous]

Hard to see but based on general description and the photo I am going with Pocillapora sp. A very prolific SPS known for dropping daughter colonies on any hard surface. Most are brownish - green or pink. Count the number of tentacles on each polyp and get a pic with polyps retracted for a better ID. If it is pocillopora then you have a fairly hardy, fast growing and beautiful SPS.

 

[SnowManSnow]

difficult from the picture....

but theres a posibility of it being a galaxia coral. Mine drops off stony polyps all the time that have fallen into cracks and grown out. If it has been out of the light a while it could turn that brownish color.... normally green polyps on them.

 

[DanH]

Here's a better photo, I moved the coral closer to the front of the tank, the polyps are not quite fully extended in this picture but they dont get much bigger. They stem from a hard white dome shaped base which can be seen in the photo. Hopefully this will help with the ID.

 

[Anonymous]

I'd second pocillopora.

 

[brandonberry]

I am thinking Alveopora.