Cyphastrea LPS or SPS?

[NanaReefer]

Wikipedia says its a member of the Faviidae Family but every seller/vendor I know lists it as an SPS. Why?

 

[Tab28]

To me polyps are large. Just a bit smaller than a short tentacle gonipora. Now a leptoseris and hynophora is a debate.

 

[NanaReefer]

To me polyps are large. Just a bit smaller than a short tentacle gonipora. Now a leptoseris and hynophora is a debate.

You didn't answer the question [emoji6]

 

[Shep]

I think because of the way it looks, it gets listed as a SPS.

 

[Tab28]

It is a LPS. The large polyps each about 1/8" when open. I never considered it was a SPS even with the polyps closed. Nothing about it falls into sps category from what i can see. I think if a vendor listed it sps it is a compounding error or just in house error. I never saw it listed as sps at vendors i visit.

 

[vuqchu]

I consider it sps based on the growth of both the branching and encrusting kind. I have the branching cyphastrea and I think it looks way better than a lot of the acros.

 

[Rob Top1]

If it mattered I would cast my vote as lps. Now the whole idea of lps and sps is simply a way the hobby has divided stony corals. Unless science has taken hold of this division recently it really only helps in locating a coral on some vendor website.

 

[evolved]

LPS & SPS is a hobbyst distinction; nothing scientific about it. It's simply classification by perceived polyp size. I argue the real intent of this classification is to group corals by what care they need; SPS = high light, high flow; LPS = low light, low flow.

If you just look at the polyp size, cyphastrea could be an SPS. But if you consider what it actually requires, LPS probably fits better.

 

[Pete polyp]

I guess it's time to take a poll and give this oddball an official classification

 

[KoleTang]

Cyphastrea is tricky because the polyps resemble SPS polyps, but they are much larger than any SPS polyp. It usually likes low light like an LPS, but there is a branching variation that resembles acropora that prefers higher light.

What we know:

- It doesn't fit perfectly in either of the hobbysist defined categories.

- it is classified in the Faviidae family (brain coral)

- There are at least two variations of growth to confuse things

We need to look at how Faviidae is described to understand why it is classified there: "Roundish, hemispherical, brain like" Faviidae I don't think an encrusting/branching coral fits here.

It seems like it would fit better with montipora (which encrusts and branches with star/flower shaped polyps) than anything. But the polyps are much larger than montipora.

I like the idea of calling it "MPS", but I doubt that will catch on.

Does anyone have Charlie Veron's phone number? :bigsmile:

 

[DLuce510]

Maybe we as a hobby should move away from classifications of hard line categories and encourage a move back to proper scientific names. Just sayin.
I personally love cyphastrea. Encrusted over everything, easy to frag and relatively hardy IME. kinda doesn't get too much love and there's some great pieces other than meteor shower. Where's the cyphastrea lover thread, huh!?!?

 

[Shep]

Maybe we as a hobby should move away from classifications of hard line categories and encourage a move back to proper scientific names. Just sayin.
I personally love cyphastrea. Encrusted over everything, easy to frag and relatively hardy IME. kinda doesn't get too much love and there's some great pieces other than meteor shower. Where's the cyphastrea lover thread, huh!?!?

I think there is one

 

[DLuce510]

I think there is one

I hope so! I've seen one page of a few shots, little love..