Polyp ID challenge!!!

[Octoman]

I noticed this little guy growing on a rock about a week ago. It's very tiny, only about 3/4cm across. Any ideas?

 

[reef dummy]

pulsating xenia?

 

[Frankie]

Possibly Goniopora eclipsensis or some other type of Goniopora?

 

[seafansar]

Hummm...looks like some kind of stony coral. Maybe a montipora. I had a monti pop up on a dead piece of monti skeleton that had been sitting in a guys sump with no light! At first you couldn't see anything, then 4 polyps, and now it's about the size of a nickel. You'll know better when it grows up.

 

[Octoman]

I have some pulsating xenia, so that is a possibility, but it's not the right color. I have some tiny sprouts of those and the polyps are much larger.

It does look goniopora-ish Frankie, the thing that really confuses me is the rock it is sprouting on was air dried outside for about week and then "cooked". I've never had any goniopora and the tank the rock came from didn't have any either. Although, anything is possible...

I do have some acros and the polyps are about the same size, but I have no idea how it would have gotten there, it's about 5-6 inches away from the nearest one vertically. Is there any way one of my acros could have released some polyps for reproduction?

 

[Octoman]

Sara, there is a montipora near it too, so maybe that's a possibility. Here is what is closest in the tank, the polyps do look kind of similar to the second one, but how would it have gotten over there?...

Millepora...

Acropora...

 

[BEELZEBOB]

id say baby acro or like pocilpora (sp)

 

[Octoman]

So far this is the lineup...

RD - xenia
Frankie - goniopora
Sara - montipora
Bob - acro or pocillopora (it's not really fair if you pick two!! )

Anyone want to go for millepora, any thing else?

I guess I'll just have to wait until this guy grows and see what happens.

Sara, here is the montipora that is about 12" away, very similar polyps...

 

[BigJay]

looks like the monti to me. Any thing could have fraged a piece off the monti and it relocated either via livestock or current.

 

[goldenmean]

How cool!
The polyps do look like those of that monti.

Do not some corals releases spores, eggs into the current to be carried away and start a new colony elsewhere?

 

[BigJay]

yes but most have a free floating larval stage that usually does not make it in a normal aquarium. Not sure on the life cycle of monti's though.

 

[seafansar]

Maybe one of your corals was accidentally broken and the piece just happened to land there. Seems like an odd place to land, being so vertical and all, but it's a possibility. Take another picture in a month or so, so we can see what it grows up to be. That montipora is beautiful btw!!!

 

[BigAl07]

Mark put me down for



or montipora