Encrusting Pavona, or Leptoseris?

[Lingwendil]

Picked this up recently- I want to say Pavona, but I'm conflicted. New growth has a pale lime green color, otherwise its mostly an aqua color, with a navy blue to plum color on the dark areas. Very little polyp extension, no noticeable sweepers at night. Either way, a 2" square frag for $10 was worth it for me- already seeing some growth, and it has gotten better color in the month I've had it.

 

[tbrown]

Kinda looks like a Mr Freeze Lepto.

 

[thamnasteroid]

Pavona cf varians, usually misidentified as Leptoseris

 

[GlassMunky]

Looks like my pavona

 

[Lingwendil]

Kinda looks like a Mr Freeze Lepto.

After some comments it looks like Mr Freeze may actually be Pavona too?

I'm fairly convinced that it's Pavona. Either way it seems to be a nice looking and decent growth speed coral, so looking forward to seeing it grow.

Thanks guys!

 

[tbrown]

There's a significant amount of "named" Pavonas that are actually Leptos and vice versa. Also, according to Reefs.com they're the same species anyway.

https://reefs.com/pavona-leptoseris-dang-coral/

 

[tbrown]

Well, apparently the link has an inappropriate word that was autocorrected so it won't work.

 

[Lingwendil]

https://reefs.com/pavona-leptoseris-****-coral/ works if you replace the **** with a "d" "a" "m" "n"

Very interesting.

 

[thamnasteroid]

While it is true that Pavona and Leptoseris (and Gardineroseris too, for that matter) are polyphyletic and congeneric, the species this coral is (P. cf varians) is currently classified within Pavona.