Where did this sps come from???

[TimT]

I was doing some routine maintenance and was cleaning the mounts for the Korallia pumps I use in my SPS system. I noticed something growing on the top of this mount and on closer inspection it is an sps of some type. Here is a pic of it encrusted on the Korallia mount.



I have since fragged it off the mount and glued it to a frag plug. It is starting to encrust and has turned green in the higher light. I plan to grow it out and see what it becomes.

So the question is how did it get there as it was in a place that no coral could touch it?

My suspicion is that either it was a polyp bail out or a spawning. I don't know if SPS bail out polyps like some LPS do. Does anyone know?

I did have this Acro spawn on Dec 23rd 2011




Cheers,
Tim

[ScubaSteve]

It looks like a baby pocilipora damicornis. P. damicornis is one of the few sps that produce planula asexually, especially in captivity. Mine produces mini colonies regularly in random spots around my tank (even my sump) and look similar to yours when first starting. Could easily be from your other spawning event also, but more than likely its a poci if you have one in your system somewhere.

[TimT]

I have had a few damicornis randomly show up so what you say makes sense. The only thing is they usually only encrust about an 1/8" and then start growing upwards. This one is encrusted about a 1/4" or so and is a metallic green. Not a colour I have ever seen on Pocillpora. I'll snap another pic of it and you can see what I mean.

[Acrowhora]

My birdsnest spawned recently,and found lotsa babies all over my live rocks.at first I wasn't sure what they were,so left them all til they got big enough for me id.i thought they were pest anemones but good I didn't kill,as I later found out that they're birdsnest

[reefwars]

looks like a cyphastrea to me ?

[ScubaSteve]

Could be cyphastrea, the septa around the retracted polyps does make it look that way. If I recall they can also produce planula asexually, though I've never heard of it in captivity (doesn't mean it doesn't happen).

I've had some poci babies encrust upwards of 1/2" before growing out, so it could still likely be that. I'm still leaning that direction because of the polyp size and density.

Tim, is the whole thing metallic green?

[TimT]

Hi Steve,

Here is a pic that I did this afternoon.



The plug is 3/4" across.

It is kind of a weird colour for a pocillopora.

Originally Posted by reefwars

looks like a cyphastrea to me ?

I don't have any Cyphastrea in my system.

Cheers,
Tim

[ScubaSteve]

Oh cool. I'm curious to see what it is when it's all growed up.

I'm still leaning toward damicornis for now. I get similar colour of the babies that come from purple/electric green base poci. Only because it seems like the most likely candidate.

That said, it really could be anything. I'll be really excited if it turns out the be an acro. It'd be the first sexual reproduction of an acro in captivity that I've heard of.

[michaelis88]

interesting

[kien]

I've had a few patches like that show up in my tank. They've always ended up turning into green porites like in this picture.



I've actually found them to be quite invasive and hard to kill.

Probably still too early to tell exactly what yours will end up being though.