Two softies at lfs- ID please

[JasonVH]

Seen at a lfs. Real curious about the first one. Finger like with long 'leather toadstool' polyp type.

And what is the second one that's covering the frag disk? Has overall GSP look but not quite? Also seems to have high pest potential- kind of seemed to be trying to spread through the gravel, even.

 

[jdubDaReefGuy]

I would say the second photo would be clove polyps. Very fast grower

 

[i cant think]

Seen at a lfs. Real curious about the first one. Finger like with long 'leather toadstool' polyp type.

And what is the second one that's covering the frag disk? Has overall GSP look but not quite? Also seems to have high pest potential- kind of seemed to be trying to spread through the gravel, even.

Second photo looks like Anthelia! They’re gorgeous old school corals.

 

[jdubDaReefGuy]

Second photo looks like Anthelia! They’re gorgeous old school corals.

That’s what I thought at first aswell. However it doesn’t like anything similar to the anthelia I have. It does a single polyp at the end of a stalk. The has polyps all over the stalk. My honest guess is Alcyonacea

 

[jdubDaReefGuy]

Seen at a lfs. Real curious about the first one. Finger like with long 'leather toadstool' polyp type.

And what is the second one that's covering the frag disk? Has overall GSP look but not quite? Also seems to have high pest potential- kind of seemed to be trying to spread through the gravel, even.

Maybe the first one is Alcyonacea. Closest thing I could find close to it.

And second one is definitely clove polyps

 

[Gumbies R Us]

First one is alcyonacea

Second looks like clove polyps

 

[JasonVH]

Appreciate the responses! I've spent a fair bit of time googling pictures of soft corals without much success either!

Is Alyconacea also a name for a species? The only thing I was able to find was it being the Order name?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcyonacea

Wasn't able to narrow it further.. the closest in a superficial way was perhaps Cespitularia with the tentacles retracted but even so, that didn't quite match. Number and arrangement of polyps seem too different?

As for the spreading thing in second picture- a pest form of clove polyps was also my first thought but then pictures via Google show feathered tentacles for that. These have smooth tentacles..? Is clove polyps something like how GSP can be a broad term, covering a few species and also some of the encrusting gorgorians?

 

[jdubDaReefGuy]

Appreciate the responses! I've spent a fair bit of time googling pictures of soft corals without much success either!

Is Alyconacea also a name for a species? The only thing I was able to find was it being the Order name?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcyonacea

Wasn't able to narrow it further.. the closest in a superficial way was perhaps Cespitularia with the tentacles retracted but even so, that didn't quite match. Number and arrangement of polyps seem too different?

As for the spreading thing in second picture- a pest form of clove polyps was also my first thought but then pictures via Google show feathered tentacles for that. These have smooth tentacles..? Is clove polyps something like how GSP can be a broad term, covering a few species and also some of the encrusting gorgorians?

I’ve attached some images of what I think the first coral is. But honestly it’s hard to tell. It doesn’t look fully extended. The devils hand behind it is also retracted which make me believe those polyps should be longer and those stalks would probably fluff up.

As far as clove, it can come in a bunch of different colors and shapes. Ranging from brown all the way up to purple with green streaks.

 

[JasonVH]

May have finally found what it is- Paralemnalia sp.

Direct links to pictures labeled as Paralemnalia:

https://www.communitycorals.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/20230104_180855.jpg

https://www.communitycorals.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/IMG-20210115-WA0005.jpg

https://www.communitycorals.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/IMG_5094.jpg

https://media.gettyimages.com/id/522095932/photo/paralemnalia-sp.jpg?s=612x612&w=gi&k=20&c=ysgxvQ6YFbmWE6-_ehXzayr8VkaOF6f7ZmmX8Tg98f4=

Recent R2R link asking about the same coral:

Does anyone know what coral this is I was told it was a sps but I wanna know its name

www.reef2reef.com

 

[ravila101]

Seen at a lfs. Real curious about the first one. Finger like with long 'leather toadstool' polyp type.

And what is the second one that's covering the frag disk? Has overall GSP look but not quite? Also seems to have high pest potential- kind of seemed to be trying to spread through the gravel, even.

Petco coral frags?

 

[vcnt]

Petco coral frags?

my local petco is seemingly great coral keepers, well, great for petco, theve got what looks to be a radeon, but i may be wrong

 

[JasonVH]

my local petco is seemingly great coral keepers, well, great for petco, theve got what looks to be a radeon, but i may be wrong

@ravila101 Yes petco. There's a bunch within driving distance plus many are either next door or within same parking lot as where I needed to be. Sometimes I do a quick visit just to have a look see.

The 'quality' varies a lot between them. One has an employee who used to keep a reef tank and their salt water setups actually looks decent by petco standards. Soft corals fully extended. Most of the local petcos have a few tanks absolutely full of cyano/dino. Strings reaching almost to the top from the gravel etc. Bubbles all over the tank. Absolutely nasty. For some reason a few tanks will look rather decent (for petco) despite those horrible tanks in the next row.. not much of it, a bit on the gravel.

It's also surprising what kinds of fish sometimes show up. I've seen gem tangs, fairy wrasses, magnificent and elegant firefishes(actually the only place I've seen elegant firefish despite several lfs also within distance), etc. Interestingly, the same goes for the corals.. have yet to see a devil's hand, crown leather, white leather toadstool, the coral above, finger and sphagetti leathers at any of those lfs. Just petco.