Coral categorization Family >> Genus >> species

[biju708]

Dear all,
I am currently involved in a project and would need coral categorization in the following manner Family >> Genus >> species for LPS, SPS & Soft Corals for example SPS >> Acroporidae >> Acropora >> Abrohlosensis do you know of any good source for such a detailed information ?

thanks in advance

 

[tektite]

Here's some -
Coral Classification

Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Clicking on the + will expand each section, there is a lot of information on corals there.

 

[squiers007]

Out of curiosity, what is the goal of this project and who is it for? Thanks.

 

[biju708]

thanks for your help tektite. Squiers007 I'm involved in a project for an international coral farm and at the moment we are trying to find out what is the best way for hobbyist to find corals over the internet when browsing through sites. If you have any ideas I would really appreciate your input.

 

[squiers007]

biju, sounds like a fun project. Are you more focusing on how to best setup a website so that search engines will produce hits for your site, or are you more focused on enabling hobbyist to better navigate your site? One thing to keep in mind will be that many hobbyist, and this is a generalization mind you, do not have a scientific background and may not know much about the corals scientific names. I have found it difficult to communiate with other hobbyist at times due to myself being a scientist first and an aquarist second. If you would like somemore insight from the scientific side of the fence send me a pm and I would be glad to talk with you more about this subject. Good luck with the project!

 

[biju708]

Thanks squiers sounds like you're the man I need for my project. I sent you a PM with some details.

 

[mps9506]

Keep in mind species identification, especially in Acropora is a flawed process in the hobby. Although I appreciate people trying to id corals out of curiosity to the species, in most cases the species identification is a stab in the dark and most phylogentic characters will change due to environmental conditions.
Organizing by genera is great, but once you get to the species level you have corals that could be up to 5 or 6 or more different species. Categorizing by growth patterns and collection areas becomes more valuable to hobbyists imo...

 

[biju708]

Categorizing by growth patterns and collection areas becomes more valuable to hobbyists imo...

Interesting, can you provide an example MPS pls

 

[mps9506]

I can't provide a current example, but if you are familiar with the old Whelks/aims project, you could search coral information not only by looking for a specific genus species listing, but you could drill down your search by answering questions on what type of coral you were looking for. Starts with hard or soft, then growth form, then polyp structure, then where it originated from etc. You filled out as much as you knew, then you get a list of genus and species that match. You click on the species and you get a description straight out of scientific text with photos and a map of it's distribution.

 

[Frankie]

I am not big on promoting other sites but Mike O'brien worked very hard putting this coral ID section up for may years. You need to join to see the pictures and information but it is well worth it IMO.
Main Index - Reef Frontiers Coral ID Reference

 

[reefsmoker]

wow Frankie can i get a copy/paste of all you reef related favorites, lol