Encrusting mystery hitch-hiker coral

[supreme_spork]

This little guy came on my live rock and so has been chillaxin' in my tank for a few months. He started out as a uniformly tan round blob about the size of a pinky-nail, but had tinly regularly-spaced dots and was a bit fleshy so I thought he might habve been alive... he's doubled in size (now about the size of a dime), the center has darkened quite a bit and as of today the dots sprouted tentacles and became polyps!

 

What the heck is he -- a monti? It seems more like a sarco of some kind, but the polyps seem more like SPS than softie.

 

[Metzzen1]

looks cool either way

[TJ_Burton]

Doesn't look like a montipora, not sure what it is.

[c est ma]

Does it resemble this hitcher I have? (I've had it for 3 years or so, thought it was completely dead after I let it get covered with shrooms, but it regrew after I pruned out the shrooms...) If so, every time I've posted it the consensus has been Porites.

 

5/6/07

 

6/20/07

 

recent

 

 

Note that the underlying skeleton in our pics looks similar, too...

 

--Diane

[supreme_spork]

Does it resemble this hitcher I have? (I've had it for 3 years or so, thought it was completely dead after I let it get covered with shrooms, but it regrew after I pruned out the shrooms...) If so, every time I've posted it the consensus has been Porites.

 

Note that the underlying skeleton in our pics looks similar, too...

 

--Diane

 

Aha! Yours looks almost exactly like my little hitcher... Porites FTW.

 

Thanks Diane!

[The Propagator]

I'd say its porites ( like Diane shows in yellow)

[Crayonbreaker]

what type of crab is that

[reefdan]

what type of crab is that

 

pom pom. they are reef safe

[GrandeGixxer]

Pom Pom crab. Those are actually little anemones that they use to catch food. Awesome little guys, but they are pretty reclusive.

[c est ma]

Pom Pom crab. Those are actually little anemones that they use to catch food. Awesome little guys, but they are pretty reclusive.

 

I agree--awesome! Crayonbreaker, see this thread for more info:

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...esselata+thread

 

--Diane

[supreme_spork]

just posting the 6 week update for this little porites hitcher -- it's been growing slowly but steadily and is doing well surrounded by a garden of various macroalgaes.

 

december 9:

 

 

january 21:

 

[c est ma]

Nice update--that's doing really well. Mine is also a fast grower. (It eats Cyclopeeze, too!)

 

Nice pic as well.

 

--Diane

[Withers]

Thats some crazy polyp extension if it is a porite.

[greeneyes]

Does it really have that mint green color that the photos shows it to have?

[supreme_spork]

Nice update--that's doing really well. Mine is also a fast grower. (It eats Cyclopeeze, too!)Nice pic as well.--Diane

 

Thanks Diane -- it's close to the back wall of my tank so hard to get a clear macro... I had to blow-out the depth-of-field to get it in focus, so everything looks a little bit cartoonish.

And

 

RE: cyclopeeze? That's a staple of my tank's diet but I've never tried target feeding it to this guy. I'll have to give it a go!

 

Thats some crazy polyp extension if it is a porite.

 

Important to note that it's blown-up pretty huge in this macro -- actual size is still only about an inch across, so the polyps are realllllly tiny.

[c est ma]

Thats some crazy polyp extension if it is a porite.

 

 

Important to note that it's blown-up pretty huge in this macro -- actual size is still only about an inch across, so the polyps are realllllly tiny.

 

I get the same remark when I post super macros. This isn't the best I've gotten, just the first I ran across:

 

 

--Diane

[supreme_spork]

I get the same remark when I post super macros. This isn't the best I've gotten, just the first I ran across:

(snip)

--Diane

 

CRAZY! You get the most awesome macros with that lupe...

[pattykat99]

It looks like it could it be a baby goniopora?, Diane i'm most certain yours is, it's got the polyp extensions just like one.

[c est ma]

It looks like it could it be a baby goniopora?, Diane i'm most certain yours is, it's got the polyp extensions just like one.

 

I hear that often, too. Did you see my pics in post #4? Do you still think so?

 

Josh (SPS20) tells me that Porites, Gonis, and Alveopora are all in the same family, though, so I suppose the resemblance is natural. Finally an easy member of the family to keep!

 

--Diane

 

(Thanks, spork! Mine happens to be right next to the tank wall.)

[DESERTHEATRACING]

I have some of those as well I did not know what it was so I cut it off and slapped it on a frag disk, it is now growing into the disk!!!

 

[supreme_spork]

I have some of those as well I did not know what it was so I cut it off and slapped it on a frag disk, it is now growing into the disk!!!

 

slick!

 

much nicer coloring than my mystery critter.

[Greenstar]

For some reason this looks more like an encrusting Pavona than a Porities to me.

[supreme_spork]

For some reason this looks more like an encrusting Pavona than a Porities to me.

 

hmm... i can't find any good closeups of pavona polyps that match, and the stuff i can find online doesn't look very similar.

 

greenstar, are you using any reference pics?

[Greenstar]

Most pictures of the online stuff is Pavona cactus, there is a number of other species that look vastly different. I can look it up when I get home, but I pretty sure I know which one it is down to the species level.

[SPS20]

It looks like it could it be a baby goniopora?, Diane i'm most certain yours is, it's got the polyp extensions just like one.

 

Porites is basically a really really small polyped version of goniopora/alveopora. They are closely related.

 

I am fairly certain that what you have there is a variety of Porites. Not 100%, but fairly certain. It's impossible to know for sure without a chunk of dead skeleton. I suspect you would rather have it alive and not know what it is than know for certain what you used to have, LOL.