Help on ID of this little maybe SPS

[enrico]

Hi all,

 

I bought in June a mushroom colony on a rock. The rock comes from Indonesia and was a skeleton of a "very fresh dead" hard coral. The skeleton seems a Montipora or something like it. Maybe it was not so dead after all. I discovered a single unknown polyp on it about 5 weeks later. It remained single until more or less 5 weeks ago. You can see in the image an older shot and an almost actual one. I thought it was a Galaxea but I'm not so sure right now... Not sure at all to be honest. Any idea?

 

Thank you!

 

Enrico

 

[foo]

I don't think it's a SPS coral, looks more like some sort of LPS coral polyp.

[supernip]

tulip anemones maybe :?

[supernip]

or an alveopora/goniopora... maybe even clove. beats me :/

[enrico]

The polyps have 24 tentacles when they grow "old"...

Seems like a Goniopora.

It is an hard coral for sure, it can be seen easily when the polyps retract.

 

Thank you

 

Enrico

[foo]

I was thinking Goniopora too but if it is it has very poor extension of the polyps but yet they still seem to open fully so I'm not so sure that is a Goniopora.

Also the pattern of the dead skeleton's on the near by rock don't look like Goniopora from their spacing and patterm but it's hard to see from the picture. But then again those skeletons may have nothing to do with these particular polyps.

A agree it's a hard coral but not a SPS coral. The only thing I can say with any certainty is that it's some sort of LPS coral.

[enrico]

Consider that the polyp is extremely small. It is about 4mm wide. The smaller ones don't reach 3mm. The polyp was almost invisible till 3 months ago... Maybe it's still early to give a correct ID I'll try to keep the forum updated with new images. By the way, anything it is, I like it!

 

Enrico