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Mystery Frag (1 Viewer)

TravisV

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Picked up this mystery frag with one of my purchases at the recent TCMAS show. Looking for input as my knowledge of encrusting corals is pretty weak. Initial research I thought it might be a Psammacora? Thanks in advance!
 

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I don’t know if orange psammacora is different than green, but I don’t feel like my green one has any obvious mouths like yours seems to have. I feel like mine is just a uniform covering of little fluffy polyps. Like Astroturf. Whereas it seems like yours has more defined circular regions.

Maybe that points more towards leptostrea as @ikserk said?

I feel like I need @Reefer Oz to weigh in. I feel like Josh always has a bead on coral IDs.
 
I don’t know if orange psammacora is different than green, but I don’t feel like my green one has any obvious mouths like yours seems to have. I feel like mine is just a uniform covering of little fluffy polyps. Like Astroturf. Whereas it seems like yours has more defined circular regions.

Maybe that points more towards leptostrea as @ikserk said?

I feel like I need @Reefer Oz to weigh in. I feel like Josh always has a bead on coral IDs.
When I first got it into the tank and it was settling in it was more fuzzy looking. I had it on frag rack for about a week. These pics are a day after attaching it to the rock work. So it might not be fully extended?
 
Could also be what is commonly called Lithophyllon in the hobby, but I've read that the true name is more likely Cycloseris explanulata, as so many corals in the hobby are misidentified.

Here's an older shot of mine with slightly different coloration. Some of these encrusting corals can be so difficult to tell apart though.
 

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Looks like it could be potentially either Psammacora or Leptastrea, they can present rather similar. Psammacora is more common in the trade and also typically has a consistent color gradient like that. Leptastrea seems to have differing color in the oral disc from the tentacles quite frequently. Of course color variation is one of the more unreliable methods of differentiating coral. Leptastrea does generally have more defined corallites, where as Psammacora often has barely definable walls. It would be easier to identify with less polyp extension. But I would lean towards Leptastrea from this photo.

If you can remember which vendor you got it from search their site for what they offer. Or better yet, reach out to them and ask what they may have had at the Expo. Any of them would appreciate hearing from a curious customer who wants to learn more. Of course, coral sellers and farmers don't always know exactly what they are slinging some of the time. Even the small group of actual coral taxonomists out there seem to debate coral classification.

The good thing is that they have similar growth forms and care requirements, in general. Encrusting to submassive colonies preferring medium/high flow and medium/low light. So regardless of the genera, find a good spot and let it buck! 🪸 👍
 

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