Acans vs Echinata Acans

[testuser]

Hi All,

I purchased a few different corals from AquaSD and am awaiting their arrival. I was a bit disappointed that the full species names weren't shared, and more so I believe trade names. This confused me a bit, as I purchased both a "Silver Bullets Acan" https://aquasd.com/products/silver-bullets-acan-2 and an "Aussie Rainbow Echinata". From my understanding, the full name for both is "acanthastrea echinata". Is that accurate, or are these two different? I understand that at least when specified as "acan echinata", you always read about 4-6" of them disemboweling themselves to attack other corals. Is this true for all Acans? I just wish that the full names were specified in these descriptions, if not true. Thanks!

 

[The_Skrimp]

The first one is actually not an acan at all. The hobby takes a while to catch up to the science but they were reclassified as micromussa lordhowensis back in 2016. I wish vendors would know better than to keep listing them as acan lords.
They are mostly peaceful corals and don’t really have long reaching tentacles.
Acan echinata looks a little different. More textured and their polyps aren’t as defined or separate. You’re absolutely right about acan echinatas being semi aggressive. I’d give the echinata a few inches of space and don’t put the micromussa next to it because the echinata will most likely win that fight.

 

[testuser]

The first one is actually not an acan at all. The hobby takes a while to catch up to the science but they were reclassified as micromussa lordhowensis back in 2016. I wish vendors would know better than to keep listing them as acan lords.
They are mostly peaceful corals and don’t really have long reaching tentacles.
Acan echinata looks a little different. More textured and their polyps aren’t as defined or separate. You’re absolutely right about acan echinatas being semi aggressive. I’d give the echinata a few inches of space and don’t put the micromussa next to it because the echinata will most likely win that fight.

Perfect, thank you very much! I'll try and use my best judgement when visually inspecting to determine further misclassifications of acans (aka echinatas, since I see them sometimes separately labeled).

Also, what about chalices and blastos? Should I treat them as hostile as acan echinatas? I also ordered a purple ring blasto and a red rim assassin chalice. Hopefully they were labeled correctly, because AquaSD also has a bad habit of removing the page completely after they are sold out...

 

[The_Skrimp]

Chalices are pretty aggressive. They’ll do the same thing as an echinata and spit their filaments at their neighbors. Blastomussas are more like the micromussa lords. They have short tentacles and are pretty peaceful as long as they’re not too close to something else.

 

[testuser]

Thanks for all of your help! Wish me luck, haha

 

[The_Skrimp]

Best of luck! I’m sure you’ll do fine.

 

[Kasrift]

Perfect, thank you very much! I'll try and use my best judgement when visually inspecting to determine further misclassifications of acans (aka echinatas, since I see them sometimes separately labeled).

Also, what about chalices and blastos? Should I treat them as hostile as acan echinatas? I also ordered a purple ring blasto and a red rim assassin chalice. Hopefully they were labeled correctly, because AquaSD also has a bad habit of removing the page completely after they are sold out...

Agree with everything @The_Skrimp said. Just thought I'd point out that the pages disappear after they are sold is just a feature of Shopify, their sales platform, not just AquaSD's decision to remove it. That said, the info will be in the email they send you after the purchase or when you login to see past purchases. The file for the image of the item purchased will be linked as a small png, but you can edit the url to remove the "small" at the end of the shopify file name to view the product you purchased as a larger photo in case you want to download it.

 

[testuser]

Agree with everything @The_Skrimp said. Just thought I'd point out that the pages disappear after they are sold is just a feature of Shopify, their sales platform, not just AquaSD's decision to remove it. That said, the info will be in the email they send you after the purchase or when you login to see past purchases. The file for the image of the item purchased will be linked as a small png, but you can edit the url to remove the "small" at the end of the shopify file name to view the product you purchased as a larger photo in case you want to download it.

Oh good! Because I logged in, looked at my order, and there were no pictures anymore and the links went to a 404. So hopefully I'll see it via the email once it's been shipped? I'll manipulate the URLs thereafter to grab the larger image for future reference.

 

[encrustingacro]

Hi All,

I purchased a few different corals from AquaSD and am awaiting their arrival. I was a bit disappointed that the full species names weren't shared, and more so I believe trade names. This confused me a bit, as I purchased both a "Silver Bullets Acan" https://aquasd.com/products/silver-bullets-acan-2 and an "Aussie Rainbow Echinata". From my understanding, the full name for both is "acanthastrea echinata". Is that accurate, or are these two different? I understand that at least when specified as "acan echinata", you always read about 4-6" of them disemboweling themselves to attack other corals. Is this true for all Acans? I just wish that the full names were specified in these descriptions, if not true. Thanks!

What the hobby calls "acans" are actually a species of Micromussa. As for echinatas, what is called "Acanthastrea echinata" in the hobby are not necessarily A. echinata, but other species from the genus Acanthastrea, such as A. subechinata, brevis, hemprichii, and rotundoflora.