Anyone interested?

Mr_Knightley · Mar 16, 2020

Hi y'all!
I was recently browsing online on some livestock websites, and I came to the realization that almost none of the listings for acropora had scientific names! This bugs me a bit, because not many people take the time to list the species names, which may be important in the future, especially if this hobby gets anything like the dart frog hobby. ;)
So, would anyone be interested in compiling an acropora identification thread on Reef2Reef? I'm not sure if that already exists, but I think that could be awesome info to know!
Anyone interested?

jack_aubry · Mar 16, 2020

agree that would be good (hobby names are ridiculous) I just think it would be too dificult for non-experts to do correctly most acropora require microscopes for skeletal id and many of the morphological ids don't hold up against genetics (cryptic species and phenotypic plasticity). Worked with a coral expert in Indonesia for most things he was happy if he could get it to genus in the field and anything he brought back he just sequenced, because coarl taxonomist is not an in demand job skill his students were just trained on the molecular side.

If I ever get my own lab I think a sequence data base of all the corals in collection could be paired with a data base of wild corals we could even do populaiton genetics if we have good wild representation. Not an easy funding sell at the moment, but at the rate reefs are dying there might be intrest in the future.

Graffiti Spot · Mar 16, 2020

I agree that more should be interested in this but it will be too hard to make one thread about all of the species. I think it might be worth starting individual threads on say acropora nasuta and get people to post theirs, then file all the threads in one large thread and we can make a sticky. Problem is a lot of people get confused with what coral is what or were told it’s one thing and it’s really another so thoes threads get filled with half the right pics and half wrong.

Softhammer · Mar 17, 2020

90% of Acro keepers have no idea or are at best misinformed. The only way this could work is if someone with the knowledge could sort through and delete the incorrect ids which will be plentiful. Look at the existing ID threads, the suggestions are usually so far off its mind boggling, with the exception of a handful of folks that actually know what theyre talking about.

RCS82 · Mar 17, 2020

Yes very interested here

SeaDweller · Mar 17, 2020

There were a few of these threads recently, none got very far.

Bpb · Mar 17, 2020

Most people aren’t qualified to identify a genus and species. Even those amongst us with the most beautiful packed sps tanks. Pulling color and growing mass are basically unrelated to correct application of binomial nomenclature.

lemonade · Mar 18, 2020

Just too many people who think they know throwing names out there. If you want to learn the corals by species, scientific names. I'd suggest taking the time to do so yourself. There's plenty of info online per species, and the more you look and study the easier it will become like anything. It would be awesome to have a species thread but it would never be accurate on these boards, imo.