# Need a few IDs



## EquiReef (Mar 12, 2014)

Need help getting IDs on the following. They came with a tank my husband insisted we buy and after cleaning up the tank(was in an awful state when we got it, ignore the lovely aptasia population) the corals are starting to open up but I still can't ID any of these. The last two photos (5&6) I was told were a cup coral and Xenia but I feel like that isn't a correct ID.

Thanks guys

1)









2)









3)









4)









5)









6)









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## TankCla (Dec 31, 2010)

Congratulations on the new buy!
pic 1 - don't know what is in the middle of the pic, maybe a sponge, but in the upper area there is a Kenya tree.
pic 2 - ricordea 
pic 3 - button polyps
pic 4 - don't know, but looks like you have bryopsis in the tank.
pic 5- goniopora
pic 6 - some sort of leather coral.


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## Patwa (Jan 30, 2014)

1) looks like a very nice ornamental macro algae (if it's the orangey thing in the centre of the pic)

2) 99% sure it's rhodactis sp. ....100% sure it's not ricordea

3) green button polyps (palythoa)

4) cabbage coral...possibly

5) goniopora

6) looks like cespitularia....possibly the purple variety, as per the faint hint of purple at the base


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## TankCla (Dec 31, 2010)

Patwa said:


> 2) 99% sure it's rhodactis sp. ....100% sure it's not ricordea


You are right. My mistake. Definitely not ricordea.

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## EquiReef (Mar 12, 2014)

Thanks guys. Here is another pic of #6. It has these strange vent type things on it.
















Amanda
Www.keystonefarms.co.nr


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## TankCla (Dec 31, 2010)

If the heads are pulsing, it is Xenia. 


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## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

most xenia don't pulse. There's really only one or two varieties of xenia that actually pulse. This does look like a xenia but not 100% sure.

That tank definitely needs a cleanup!


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## EquiReef (Mar 12, 2014)

That's why I didn't want the tank. I said it would be way too much work to clean it up. He insisted. I've never seen aptasia as large as in this tank. Once we get the other tanks running we are going to frag all the corals off the rocks and put them in the new tank. Then the live rock can sit in the dark for a few weeks and the substrate can be thrown out.

Amanda
Www.keystonefarms.co.nr


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## EquiReef (Mar 12, 2014)

The heads don't pulse, nor have they really opened. But the vent parts of the coral have thrown me off as I've never seen that before.

Amanda
Www.keystonefarms.co.nr


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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

+1 to Patwa

Looks like you're a little over-runned by aiptasia :O


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## EquiReef (Mar 12, 2014)

Ya I've never seen it this bad. And the guy we bought the tank from tried to tell me that they were pretty corals and wanted more money because " look how many there are!"

Amanda
Www.keystonefarms.co.nr


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## EquiReef (Mar 12, 2014)

Here is a pic of the vent things.









Amanda
Www.keystonefarms.co.nr


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## Patwa (Jan 30, 2014)

that is 1000% purple cespitularia....not xenia.

(it is, however, a "xeniid" coral, like sympodium, xenia, efflatounaria, etc)

i know this coral very well bc I first got this coral back in 2007/8 and from there I fragged it and spread it out to reefers here in the GTA and now it's found all over the place.

the "vent" thing you note is called a foot... or in techy terms, a "stolon". It's how this coral propagates/spreads....it grows a foot and that foot then touches new rock and attaches. From that foot, new polyps emerge and grow.

some jackass named Vargas took a colony of it to ORA and now everyone calls it Tony Vargas' Purple Cespitlaria. But I had it way before him!! ....i just wasn't a _smart_ jackass and never took it to ORA lol d'oh 

(no, no, im not bitter....no, never! haha)

z


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## Patwa (Jan 30, 2014)

altcharacter said:


> There's really only one or two varieties of xenia that actually pulse.


actually, there's 3 I know of.....i've had them all

1. Red Sea pulsing xenia....the most common one out there
2. Tongan pulsing xenia (it's also virtually white in colour and has smaller polyps....it's also prolly found in other countries, but it's common on Tongan shipments FME)
3. Large xenia...(maybe anthelia sp. now that I think of it...)...it's huge...grows long and stringy.....polyps are huge. Big Al's Missy has a few frags on sale right now.

z


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## EquiReef (Mar 12, 2014)

Wow. Thanks for the info. It has probably five or six of these feet things with air bubbles coming out of them and these random stringy things going up to the surface with a hard bubble at the end. Should I try and make it so the feet touch a rock if possible?

Amanda
Www.keystonefarms.co.nr


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## Patwa (Jan 30, 2014)

EquiReef said:


> Wow. Thanks for the info. It has probably five or six of these feet things with air bubbles coming out of them and these random stringy things going up to the surface with a hard bubble at the end. Should I try and make it so the feet touch a rock if possible?
> 
> Amanda
> Www.keystonefarms.co.nr


yes....you have a very healthy and thriving colony there  to get it to grow, do exactly what you suggested.

if you wouldn't mind, let me know on PM if you can chop me a piece. I was trying to revive a colony from another member here, but it croaked (sorry, Jay, I did my best!). I miss this coral so much

let me know if you want to see some pics of it...ill dig up my old pics....when it's going strong it has the most mind-blowing purple colour


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## EquiReef (Mar 12, 2014)

I'll let you know when I frag it, probably within the next month or two. Will try and get it to grow onto another rock on its own in the mean time.

Amanda
Www.keystonefarms.co.nr


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## Patwa (Jan 30, 2014)

thanks! please do keep me posted.

fyi

Here's purple cespitularia in the wild. I photographed this on a dive in the Philippines


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## EquiReef (Mar 12, 2014)

I will for sure! You are officially my hero for that picture. I am determined to learn how to dive and get my PADI cert. but first I must learn how to swim properly lol. I went snorkelling for the first time in Grenada in Feb. and was in love, and all there was there were massive urchins and some fan coral.

Amanda
Www.keystonefarms.co.nr


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## Patwa (Jan 30, 2014)

you should check out my dive picture thread! i can barely swim, too.... but i found i'm pretty damn good at diving! lol

http://gtaaquaria.com/forum/showthread.php?t=82202


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## noy (Nov 19, 2012)

+1 Patwa on the ID

I really wouldn't try to use any of that rock without drying it out and killing off everything inside first. I see aiptasia, cyano, bryopsis and maybe even some dino's in the tank.

Make sure you dip everything before introducing it elsewhere.

Honestly I would not bother trying to frag the paly's. They are very common. Also, the gonioporas may be too far gone to revive - the tissue recession is fairly substantial at the base.


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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

Looks like a daughter goni growing on a plate coral skeleton that a mother colony "dropped a bud".


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## EquiReef (Mar 12, 2014)

Pic 5 & 6 are in my main tank, not the horribly filthy one. The green goni was a tiny micro frag I bought from big als as a cup coral which I knew was not an accurate ID. I glued it onto the coral skeleton, brought back roughly 25 pounds of them from Grenada in February so I could use them for fragging, I find its easier than plugs and looks nicer.

Amanda
Www.keystonefarms.co.nr


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