Unknown LPS coral ID please.

[Taz_Devil]

Hi,

Have keep a reef aquarium for 7 months now, previously had a FO system for 18 months so still learning.

Have been advised to post here and see if the guru's can ID this coral for me. I got it from an LFS a week ago and wondered if anyone had an idea on the family/species ?

I would have posted in the ID section but it seems that since I am brand new to reefs.org that I cant as yet. Mods feel free to move the post to the relevant area and apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Cheers

 

[Anonymous]

:welcome:

I'm not expert, but I would guess it is a brain coral of some sort, possibly a maze brain.

 

[Anonymous]

I would say a pectinia lactuca.

But I too am no expert.

Looks healthy, good luck.

 

[Anonymous]

Yep, it's a pectinia. And yep, it looks healthy.

 

[bleedingthought]

Yeah, it looks good!

 

[Anonymous]

I would say a pectinia lactuca.

But I too am no expert.

Looks healthy, good luck.

Common name please.

 

[Anonymous]

Common name please.

For real? Isn't the problem using common names to identify corals?

But, if you insist, sure. I hearby name it flowering lettuce head in spring.

Now people everywhere will beg their LFS to check their stock lists for one.

 

[Anonymous]

Common name please.

For real? Isn't the problem using common names to identify corals?

But, if you insist, sure. I hearby name it flowering lettuce head in spring.

Now people everywhere will beg their LFS to check their stock lists for one.

Yes for real. I have a hard time remembering the latin names and there is no way I can spell them. Or give me a type of coral. Is it a type of brian, etc, etc.

 

[bleedingthought]

Has also been referred to as spiny cup. :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

Common name please.

For real? Isn't the problem using common names to identify corals?

But, if you insist, sure. I hearby name it flowering lettuce head in spring.

Now people everywhere will beg their LFS to check their stock lists for one.

Yes for real. I have a hard time remembering the latin names and there is no way I can spell them. Or give me a type of coral. Is it a type of brian, etc, etc.

Wazzel, I have only ever heard of this coral refered to as a pectinia, I think they are uncommon enough in the trade that they are not referred to by a common name.

But. . . I did a google search and found "Hibiscus Coral" as an alternate common name used for pectinia. Note that I have never ever heard of a Hibiscus Coral until just now. 8O

 

[Anonymous]

See, there's the problem right there. There are three different pectinia corals and the one I know commonly as a spiny cup, is not the one pictured here. It's the one that has a sharper skeleton.

I would use Lettuce coral for the one pictured above. But now if you run to your LFS and want a lettuce coral, who knows what you'll get. If you went and asked for pectinia latuca there shouldn't be any question about what you want.

 

[Anonymous]

If it was me I would have to go with a picture and say "get me one of these"

 

[blackcloudmedia]

That there boys is a lettuce coral. If you manage to find one in a store its most likely goin da be called that. That is of course assuming the store owners dont have as much difficulty as you in identifying it. :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Common name please.

For real? Isn't the problem using common names to identify corals?

But, if you insist, sure. I hearby name it flowering lettuce head in spring.

Now people everywhere will beg their LFS to check their stock lists for one.

Yes for real. I have a hard time remembering the latin names and there is no way I can spell them. Or give me a type of coral. Is it a type of brian, etc, etc.

Have you ever heard of an Acropora, or Xenia, or Montipora? For some reason the latin names of those have stuck. I don't know why people insist on using common names. It's a "brain", I guess, but so is a Trachyphyllia, Welsophyllia, Lobophyllia, Platygyra, Favia, etc......

 

[bleedingthought]

These sure look like LPS, though. But apparently they're SPS? :?

 

[Taz_Devil]

Thanks guys, I had come to the same conclusion that it was a lettuce coral or pectinia sp (lactuca) some further pics I found when searching the web are http://whelk.aims.gov.au/coralsearch/html/201-300/Species pages/298.htm

So its definetely an SPS not an LPS ? Looks good in the tank though 8)

 

[Anonymous]

Common name please.

For real? Isn't the problem using common names to identify corals?

But, if you insist, sure. I hearby name it flowering lettuce head in spring.

Now people everywhere will beg their LFS to check their stock lists for one.

Yes for real. I have a hard time remembering the latin names and there is no way I can spell them. Or give me a type of coral. Is it a type of brian, etc, etc.

Have you ever heard of an Acropora, or Xenia, or Montipora? For some reason the latin names of those have stuck. I don't know why people insist on using common names. It's a "brain", I guess, but so is a Trachyphyllia, Welsophyllia, Lobophyllia, Platygyra, Favia, etc......

Could be that the latin names are the ones commonly used so they stick.

 

[Anonymous]

So its definetely an SPS not an LPS ? Looks good in the tank though 8)

Pectinia is one of the oddballs that doesn't fit any category well, like merulina and my favorite of the bunch, pachyseris (the NPS, "no polyp stoney coral")

 

[Chubosco]

O.K., so did you trade for it or how much did you pay for it, not that I'm a fan of brain corals, though I'm truly in love with my open green brain. Just wondering?

 

[Taz_Devil]

No, I didnt trade for it, I was just browsing in my LFS and took a liking to it - they couldnt 100% ID it but believed it to be an LPS. It wasnt that expensive tbh - around the £30 mark (which is pretty good in the UK).