SCS - Surprise Coral Stony

[sandybaydave]

I got some liverock and it had some apparently dead coral skeletons on it. After only a few days it became apparent that one of them was not dead. It slowly began spontaneously regenerating. The problem is I am having a problem identifying it and am therefore unable to determine how to keep it alive and well. I would appreciate any help I could get in identifying this suprise coral. It seems as though it is getting along ok with no direct attention, it has been in there about two or three weeks now. It seems as though one of the polyps has bleached out a bit (it's the biggest one in the picture) but this was about a week ago and it hasn't shrunk or anything yet. This was also the first polyp to magically appear. I was "dusting" the liverock today with a very small powerhead to which I had fitted some airline tubing and was surprised to see a clear response by the coral of changing shape a bit. Clearly this thing is is pretty hardy to have survived the tail end of my tank cycling. This is my first salt and I am eager to do all I can to make sure everything thrives.

 

[Skimmy]

you cant post the pics?

 

[NaH2O]

sandybaydave - see if this thread helps with posting the pics How to Post Photos

 

[sandybaydave]

I'm working on putting pictures up right now...
Thanks for the help Nikki
-Dave

 

[NaH2O]

WOW! How cool is that? Here are a couple of my initial thoughts on what it is...I'd lean towards a Favia sp.

Favia laxa.

I picked this one because, if you look at the skeleton picture, it looks similar to yours. You'll be able to get up close to the skeleton to compare to the pics of skeletons. Identifying corals is a tough thing, because you really need to see the skeleton magnified to study all the tiny details of the skeletal parts.

Here's another to compare the difference in the skeletons. I think the first link more resembles what you have, compared to this one: Acanthastrea faviaformis

Keep us updated with pictures as it grows. I'd like to see what it looks like with more tissue on it.