[zhenya]

Well,

I had rearranged some stuff in my tank to acomodate a new piece that I picked up from my local store.However, I've been trying all afternoon trying to id this thing.Never seen one of this before so it's kinda got me stumped. No abvious axial corallite and radial corallites are tightly packed and rounded in shape,very irregularly spaced. If anyone has one of this, please give me a hint.
Forgot to add that I was thinking perhaps A. formosa but...not sure at all at this point.

Edit: took few more shots including the close up of the corallites.

[Poseidon]

Whatever it is, it sure is COOL!

[Reefland]

Got a pretty funky growth pattern to it huh?

[zhenya]

Mike,Thanks!

Scott,

Funky can't even begin to describe it.The axial corallites are coming to a shrp point and not as pronounced on some other corals.My thinking is that it is a wild piece broken/chiseled off of a large clump.Sort of like an end piece,hence making it impossible to even guess for me. I tossed A. hemprichii and A.roseni in there as both have similar corallites(radial) but Veron describes axial corallites on A.hemprichii as dome shaped and they are certainly not dome shaped on my piece.

I'm hoping Kevin will shime in and rescues me again Where is Kevin?

[zhenya]

Just a quick update.I have to scratch this colony as a loss to RTN type malady It started last night and I decided to frag it this morning. Took just two small frags from it,as far as I could from affected area.I would say good 2-2.5 inches away.Not sure what to do with the rest of the colony.
It was in terrible shape when I got it, the portion where the branches were fused together it had large white part with bare skeleton and some other parts had white bare spots on it.I did the lugols prior to putting in the tank but it did not help. I'm thinking now that I should have fragged from the beginning but I hoped that I could wait in hopes that it would recover.
That's the chance you take with wild colonies/fragments of large colonies I suppose.

This is what I decided to keep.

[kevinpo]

Hi Gene,
Sorry to hear about the RTN event
Here is my WAG... A. roseni. I haven't seen anything to much like it except A. rudis which has those bead like corallites. I woud guess it came from an area with very strong current.

Regards,
Kevin
PS: I hope the frags hold on to become a colony again. It would be interesting to see how it develops in a captive environment.

[zhenya]

Hi Kevin,

Thanks, your WAG guesses are much more on the money then you give yourself credit for

About those frags, I'm hopeful that they do well and so far I don't see anything happening that would pose concerns. The minute axial corallites that turn white from light blue had colored up again but I have yet to see a pronounced polyp extension. I did checked at night and seen some but nowhere near what it should be IMO for it to start feeding.
I'll update again when I see any changes or things that worth commenting on.

BTW, I had marked it as a A.roseni as well with A.rudis being very close second
I had also fragged the crap out of one colony that I had for about 2.5 years...I found bunch of fuzzy mushrooms groing right on it where I couldn'r see it...argh. I'll add a pic so you'll see what it end up looking like.

Those turf wars don't come cheap.

[zhenya]

Well,

It's been three days after I fragged the crap out of that colony and from the two frags that I had taken the larger one seems to be holding on OK.The tiny tip I don't think will make it as I noticed recession from the base of it(if you can call that a base).
Here's a pic of the larger frag.I think I can see very small polyp indications in the radial corallites.This keeps me hopeful, at least for now.

[zhenya]

It seems that larger fragment had stabalized and blue tips on the axial corallites have intensified in coloration(I even think that it is a sign that it is growing a bit) and I can see polyps now extended day and night. I'm very hopeful that it will do OK from this point on. I had increased feedings by about 15% every night but i'm not sure if this had anything to do with frag's stabalizing, maybe it's just the fact that I had cut far enough from the problematic area.
Anyway, another pic of it,of course, you all probably sick looking at this coral

PS. The smaller fragment had not changed in appearance one way or the other.I'm just pleased that it is not shutting down at this point. If I see any progress on it, I'll add a pic of this frag as well.
All in all, this is the first time that I have any fragments living this long after RTN/SDR event,usually they are gone by next morning after the fragmentation or the following day. Of course, if I had a quarantine tank it would be much easier to deal with this but I don't have room for one,so, this is really very lucky outcome so far

[Elmo18]

Nice looking piece Gene. Maybe it will change colors on you. Looks like its got purple tips, but im sure the body will change.

- Elmo

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by Elmo18

Nice looking piece Gene. Maybe it will change colors on you. Looks like its got purple tips, but im sure the body will change.

- Elmo

Hi Ilham,

To be perfectly honest, I do not care at all if this coral changes color at this point.I just want for it to survive and grow well.But, in person, the tips are actually bright blue.Main body is brown but I did catch a hint of yellow on the original piece so, I wouldn't complaint if the main body does change to yellowish brown.Heck, I like brown/beige/green...whatever, as long as they are growing and healthy. I tried to take a shot from the top today but those darn chromis kept darting all over the place and rippling water surface, so pic came out a bit distorted

[zhenya]

OK, almost another week past by and it appears that both frags going to make it.I noticed a bit of growth on both of them and smaller frag had developed nice blue tips on the axial corallites, just like the bigger fragment.

Here's some pics to show you the improvement that I noticed, one unrelated pic is just becouse I took it

[zhenya]

Well,it's been almost a month since the last updae so I decided to post an updated picture of the large frag.The smaller frag was doing really well also but I woke up this morning to find it missing Apperently one of the fish knock it loose from it's mount and it is gone by now,I'm sure of it becouse the anemone is right beneath it I'm suspecting that clumsy Premnas...
Well, here's that pic of the larger colony, you can see in the second pic that it had grown quite a bit in this time.I am really pleased that I was able to save at least this one piece and that it is doing so well.Also, there is a pic from the top to show its true color along with the color of the growing margins.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by Kevinpo

I hope the frags hold on to become a colony again. It would be interesting to see how it develops in a captive environment.

Kevin,

This is updated picture for you It seems that the coral had survived and is changing,IMHO. The new growth does not have those bead-like corallites anymore,which will make a helluva hard time to guess at any ID's
FWIW, it is growing a pretty good clip so I'm happy about that and, it kept its original colorations as well.


Also, if you notice, the radial corallites became more prominent and not as closely packed as they were on the original piece. It'll be interesting to see what will become of it in captive environment for sure. I'll keep posting pictures if this thread stays alive for me to remember

[kevinpo]

Hi Gene,
Wow that sure is a drastic change! It's looking like a A. formosa now. Does it slime up alot when disturbed? It also looks like it could be A. nana depending on how thick the branches are (it's hard to tell from the picture).
It sure looks happy and healthy at any rate.

Regards,
Kevin

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by kevinpo

Hi Gene,
Wow that sure is a drastic change! It's looking like a A. formosa now. Does it slime up alot when disturbed? It also looks like it could be A. nana depending on how thick the branches are (it's hard to tell from the picture).
It sure looks happy and healthy at any rate.

Regards,
Kevin

Hi Kevin,

If you remember, in my original post I had said that it looked A.formosa-like but the radial corallites confused me to no end In the original piece the branches were very thick and it sure looked like the coral came from very turbulent environment. What I think is happening is that I do not have strong enough flow in my tank for this coral to maintain its massive skeleton,hence the more delicate appearance today. It sure isn't A.nana becouse I do have one and it does not look like it at all.
Do you think it would be a good idea to maybe place a small powerhead aimed directly at it for a constant flow? I'm sure it will alter its growth but not sure how...
It certainly does look happy at the moment as growth rate would suggest so I'm hesitant to change anything. I did find that smaller frag that my clownfish knocked down and remounted it again...it was surprizingly alive and continued to grow on the sand bed behind my H.crispa
It also makes me believe that this coral has amazing survival instinct and adaptability to the environment
Thank you for your thoughts and for listening to my mumblings

[kevinpo]

Gene,
I enjoy listening to your mumblings very much my friend I would leave it and not add a powerhead. It looks like its doing very well without any changes. I have one that really slimes if I touch it and the corallites crush if I grab it too hard.

Regards,
Kevin
PS: I just got a 450 but lack the funding at the moment to do much installation.

[zhenya]

Kevin,

Sorry,I forgot to answer your question if it slimes or not.It does not slime helluva lot,just the usual acro sliming when touched.Not like the A.yongei for sure

Originally Posted by Kevinpo

I just got a 450 but lack the funding at the moment to do much installation.

I sincerely hope that things improve,Kevin. Anything I can do to help?
I'm assuming it's the proposed main display tank for your store that we talked about in a previous thread.Correct?
I sure hope that it will see water soon and will be able to accept some of my frags as well. I'll keep that smaller frag of this coral for you,just in case. We could compare notes then on how it does in the different environments.
If I remember correctly, your proposed waterflow scheme was something on the spectacular side and it would be interesting to see how a Acropora species would react as far as skeletal densities and totall mass. Growth rates and so on...

[kevinpo]

Hi Gene,
Not to derail your thread but here are a few pictures of us moving it in place (well mostly my customers and the builder. Someone had to take the pictures )

Regards,
Kevin
http://www.aquaticdreams.biz/store450/

[zhenya]

Kevin,

Thanks for the pics,tank is a beauty I sure hope thing will improve rapidly for you and there will be water storming in there very soon.
BTW, it was a smart thinking on your part to stick to taking pictures on this one...tank sure looks like a beast to lift/handle.