Mystery Euphillia

[A.m.P]

So I recently bought this coral, it was being sold as a cristata but it lacks the shaped-pronounced skeleton and has polyps which look more like tiny hammers. The heads are full-grown at about 1/2-2/3" wide with a relatively large mouth. I have no idea what on Earth this coral is, but was told it is a fast grower and frankly I think it looks great and will be perfect in a nano-tank setting with its' small-size, bizarre-compact-and-bushy growth pattern, and daisy-shaped heads.

 

That said, has anyone bumped into a coral like this before?

Edited April 18, 2019 by Amphrites
Bugger, I swear I made this in the ID forum

[mitten_reef]

Possibly euphyllia cristata, or just generic tiny hbranching hammer. Whatever it is, it doesn’t look very happy in the pic. 

[A.m.P]

1 hour ago, mitten_reef said:

Possibly euphyllia cristata, or just generic tiny hbranching hammer. Whatever it is, it doesn’t look very happy in the pic. 

12 hours post shipping and dip lol, I wouldn't be too happy either, that said it took this long just for the second head to open up that much. The first was out within an hour, same for the rest of the coral I received, that frag looked so bad at first I was pretty confident it was DOA. Now I'm just hoping that the second head opens up sand stays that way and that the tiny bit of skeleton showing on the tri-color frogspawn gets covered back up quickly (hopefully not too much flow, so hard to tell with smaller colonies)
I always thought cristata had REALLY defined scute-like skeletons that poked up out around the polyps and fat, stubby chunky-polyps at that, this just doesn't look like that. And I've never seen a generic tiny-hammer, I kind of assumed one might exist though =p

[Christopher Marks]

How is it looking today @Amphrites?

[A.m.P]

Had to move it a bit, snail bulldozed the frogspawn above it lol, can't seem to go wrong with the bottom head, always open and happy, can't seem to make the top open up at all though. I don't see how the flow could be any different, the lighting can't really be either, but they're acting as if they're totally different environments. Top is showing a touch of its' skeleton actually, not looking good but I feel like moving it will just stress it more and guarantee its' death, that said it doesn't seem to be happy where it is now either. 

Here's a pair of videos showing the flow my euphillia are getting, the frogspawn is barely moving and fully-extended, even showing its' mouth, the hammer is a little-less extended than yesterday but seems to prefer the somewhat more intense flow it is getting, and the mystery colony is barely getting any movement at all.

Love your pico reef thread by the way, read through that earlier. I was planning on getting back into things with a vase until this Nano Atoll came up locally for next to nothing with an AI Prime included, couldn't say no.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/PVKH9pQEkTwhDv84A

[A.m.P]

I think I may have figured it out, it might be Euphyllia baliensis or Cairns (the seller was pretty certain it was Indonesian), not sure though anyone have any thoughts or experience with that particular coral?
https://reefbuilders.com/2012/09/17/euphyllia-baliensis/
https://reefbuilders.com/2015/02/18/peculiar-thin-branching-euphyllia-collected-in-cairns-australia/

 

[A.m.P]

Update, second head looks like it may pull through. I'm fairly certain this is some variant of baliensis, though it has a lovely-gold tint to its' polyps once it settles in a bit. Turns out I may have had it in a bit too much flow, it seems oddly sensitive to its' environment as even the nerites climbing on its' rock cause it to tuck in. Not sure if this thread should be closed since I *may* have self-identified the species? I'd still love if someone with more experience than myself weighed in or even ID'd the bugger lol.

 

[jcrisman2009]

On 4/18/2019 at 5:05 PM, A.m.P said:

So I recently bought this coral, it was being sold as a cristata but it lacks the shaped-pronounced skeleton and has polyps which look more like tiny hammers. The heads are full-grown at about 1/2-2/3" wide with a relatively large mouth. I have no idea what on Earth this coral is, but was told it is a fast grower and frankly I think it looks great and will be perfect in a nano-tank setting with its' small-size, bizarre-compact-and-bushy growth pattern, and daisy-shaped heads.

 

That said, has anyone bumped into a coral like this before?

Euphyllia baliensis