Help ID this sps

[Jimnorris]

This colony is finally starting to color up after about six months of being in my tank. Any ideas of what type of arcopora ?
Jim

[Jimnorris]

closer picture

[matt]

Looks like Acropora nasuta; see page 227 in the Borneman book.

[dan]

nice pics jim and nice acropora. looks like a good peice to frag. but i'm sure every body tells you that. lol do you think they colored up because you changed your lighting adding 2-10ks

[Henry]

Could also be Acropora valida. Attach is a pic that I found.

[Henry]

Acropora azurea Acropora multiacuta......this could be many species but after a long night of searching maybe I found a match. forget the previous pic here is a different one.

Scientific Name: Acropora tenuis
Classification: SPS - Bushy/corymbose species


Here is the site where I found the pic

http://www.reefcorner.com/SpecimenSheets/a_tenuis.htm

[Jimnorris]

Dan,
This coral is about 8 inches under the XM 20,000k. This is were it has been since I brought it home. I was advised to give it a 30 second fresh water dip. This I did and the coral turned a solid white? I almost after afew months toss the coral but everytime I took it out of the water it still had that nice fresh acro smell :D So I stay with iy and finally am getting color!
Jim

[OrionN]

..... Any ideas of what type of arcopora ?
Jim
It is a type of :lol: Acropora that I want in my tank. :lol:
I think it is a Acropora tenuis also, but you how hard it is to accurately ID these thing without looking at the full growth colony and skeleton of the coral.
Minh

[oliver]

I have one which is very similar and has been labelled A. tenuis by the person that sold it to me (although that certainly does not mean that the guy was right)

Personally, I think that Veron is taking a bit of a liberty, coming up with so many different species of Acropora. I think that if you cut the pictures out of his book and re-arranged them, even the authors of that book could not tell the difference. I leaf through there and find pictures of corals which look exactly the same as a picture three pages earlier. Furthermore, I have gotten wild colonies which completely changed in both shape, corallite distribution, and color, once they got put in my tank. I have a feeling that this goes on in the wild. Where the coral is growing has probably just about as much to do with how it looks, than its exact species.

[GaryP]

Sometimes you have to look at them under a microscope to teel the difference between similar species.
ID'ing them may be based on the configuration of their polyps that is not visible to the naked eye. Of
course knowing where they came from can sometimes help by knowing what is nativew to that area.
This is not something I have seen very often with most Acropora species.

Gary

[OrionN]

....
Personally, I think that Veron is taking a bit of a liberty, coming up with so many different species of Acropora. I think that if you cut the pictures out of his book and re-arranged them, even the authors of that book could not tell the difference. I leaf through there and find pictures of corals which look exactly the same as a picture three pages earlier. Furthermore, I have gotten wild colonies which completely changed in both shape, corallite distribution, and color, once they got put in my tank. I have a feeling that this goes on in the wild. Where the coral is growing has probably just about as much to do with how it looks, than its exact species.
Oliver,
We are talking about the world authority on Acropora here (Veron).
That is why microscopic examination of the coral skeleton is needed for accurate ID.
Minh

[oliver]

I think that with modern technology, miroscopic examination of the skeleton is a waste of time and may not be accrurate. As I said, I have seen acros grow into a totally different growth form when placed into different conditions. I would like to see Veron do some DNA typing on his specimens. That would be easier and much more precise, and I would bet that he would have to publish a whole new book!

[OrionN]

While it is true that coral A have a different DNA profile than coral B, one must first ID corals A and B first before one can assigned these DNA profiles to certain species. Thus we get back to describe the corals.

DNA analyses take time and money. There have being a handful of species with their complete DNA determined. One cannot use DNA profile of a coral to determine species unless one has a DNA profile for that species. We just don’t have that at this time and will not have it for a long, long time.

There is a body of scientific knowledge (other than just ID corals) that base on the descriptions of the coral. There are no DNA information regarding these corals, just descriptions and photos. In order to use these information, one must use these ID method used in these articles.

I don't know much about coral ID or even much about coral. I think it is presumptuous of us to say that the world leading authority take "liberties" in his book about his recognized filed of expertise.

[oliver]

Sorry to hijack this thread, but I disagree Minh. Let's say that Mr. Veron, after painstakingly bleaching two corals which look very similar, finds that coral A has 35 radial ridges on each axial coralite, whereas coral B only has 34. Therefore, coral A shall be called Acropora minh and coral B shall be called Acropora oliver. Niether of these corals have had DNA studies done (really not that expensive any more) If the DNA from A. minh and the DNA from A. oliver turns out to be identical, then they really should not be classified as seperate species despite what labels they were previously given based on microscopic analysis. Along the same lines, there may be 20 different DNA's found among those corals all labelled as A. millepora. These should then be renamed, since they are not all the same organism.

[GaryP]

Oliver,

I've done DNA analysis in the past and the question is what is the motivation to do analysis?
Are people going to stop buying them because they haven't had DNA analysis? The only real
reason that DNA would be done would be by some pharmaceutical company that is doing drug
research. More work is being done for drug research on sponges than corals that I know of.
You are right that doing the actual analysis is not that expensive, but buying the equipment
and hiring the type of people it takes to do this is not cheap. We're talking about setting up a
from scratch. Besides, are they going to run an analysis on every coral that is imported or frag
offered for sale? Are you willing to absorb that cost every time you buy a frag?

Gary

[Tim Marvin]

The true name is Acropora with purple tips and cream base. NICE Jim!

[alexwolf]

LOL :-D

[Tim Marvin]

Oh yeh and I didn't have to kill it to examine it under a microscope or do any DNA test to ID it......LOL.......JK.... if I am offending anyone.

[oliver]

I agree with you Tim. I think that is probably how we should label acros until there is a better way. I am not saying that someone should go out and genetically label every coral. My point of contention with Veron is that they are themselves naming hundreds of corals (a huge number of corals in his book were named recently by him) I think that in these times, it is not sufficient to define a species just by how it looks under the microscope. If I were to take a small piece of bone from a human, decalcify it and magnify it a few thousand times, then compare it to a piece of bone taken from the same area of a monkey, there would be no pathologist or microbiologist that could differentiate the two. To come up with a new species these days should require genetically specific identification. That is what they are doing with other simple organisms such as bacteria and viruses.

[JimD]

uhh, that coral looks kinda,,,,,,,,,familiar. Is that what I think it is Jim?

[OrionN]

The true name is Acropora with purple tips and cream base. NICE Jim!
na.
The true name is Acropora that i want in my tank.
Jim, givveme, giveme.
Minh

[matt]

Maybe we can raise money for our hobby by agreeing to sell species names to willing corporate sponsors. We could have acropora Xerox, acropora BMW, and of course, acropora Miller Lite.

[Jimnorris]

JimD,
Yes it is! Finally has come alive. How long has it been?
Minh it now has been fragged.
Jim

[DaBird]

Were gonna lock up ya'lls keyboards if ya don't play nice boys....