Soft Coral I.D.

[BoomerD]

Got a tiny frag of this last spring at the B.A.R.E. coral propagation meeting. Noever did find out what it was. Checked the club list of things I brought home, and can account for everything on the list. What is this thing?

 

[ReefLady]

It almost looks like a type of encrusting gorgonian - take a peek at these pics from the gallery:

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=817&password=&sort=1&cat=509&page=2

and

http://www.reefsanctuary.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=862&password=&sort=1&cat=523&page=1

? Maybe?

 

[BoomerD]

It's kind of soft & "rubbery" under the polyps. Here's a pic with the polyps retrcted after I "irritated" it:

 

[ReefLady]

That looks a lot like my "pulsing sinularia" probably actually a cespitularia. When it's opened up, drop some phyto or inverty food in the tank and look for some individual polyps starting to pulse. If so it's worth a LOT of dough. Someone was selling small frags for $90 on RC.

 

[BoomerD]

One of the members of the club said either a alcyonium/ colt or a sinularia sp. Still hoping for a good i.d. The sinluaria sort of rings a bell, but so does colt.

 

[ReefLady]

Well, after poking around in Borneman's book, as well as a few others, I think I've made a choice (okay, a guess, LOL).

I believe it's a Cladiella sp.

Unfortunately, most pics out on the net which are referred to as Cladiella really aren't. Here's one decent pic that I could find:

Cladiella is one of the soft corals which is often called a "Colt" coral. However, unlike most other colt corals, Eric Borneman describes Cladiella sp. as not soft, but "quite thick and durable". He also describes it as having "short stalks and stubby fingers", and as "heavy and lumpy when retracted".

That's about as close as I can get. The pics of Cladiella sp. in his book ("Aquarium Corals") look very similar to your specimen.

HTH!

 

[BoomerD]

Wow RL, that sure looks like it. Much closer that any pic I've been able to come up with. You get a star for today! Yeah, well it was as close to a star as I could find!
Karma atcha too for all your hard work!

 

[ReefLady]

LOL - no prob! Txs for the star! ;-)

 

[Boomer]

Teri