Frogspawn or Cristata Torch? ID please.

[VintageReefer]

These two were sold to me as cristata torches.

Do you have them? The first one won’t be orange

 

[Bigfish502]

Do you have them? The first one won’t be orange

I have both of them yes.

 

[VintageReefer]

I have both of them yes.

Can you post pictures? Do you have an orange lens ? If not please repost pictures with whiter lighting so it doesn’t get all distorted and blue

 

[Bigfish502]

Can you post pictures? Do you have an orange lens ? If not please repost pictures with whiter lighting so it doesn’t get all distorted and blue

I don't have a working orange lense. By whiter lighting do you mean this?

 

[VintageReefer]

I mean pics of the coral in your tank. Do you use leds? If so, turn the blues down and whites up, so a phone pic comes out more natural

 

[Bigfish502]

I mean pics of the coral in your tank. Do you use leds? If so, turn the blues down and whites up, so a phone pic comes out more natural

Those photos were from the vender, these are from my tank. My phone isn't great at taking photos.

 

[VintageReefer]

they are nice looking torches! I can’t see the skeleton ridges though. There are “short stem” torches that have shorter tentacle naturally

 

[thamnasteroid]

Yeah I see some kind of texture on the tentacles but this specimen has white/translucent tentacles. How is this supposed to help when you are looking at specimens with purple, green, or gold tentacles?

Euphyllia generally doesn't have purple/green tentacles. For gold tentacles, they may or may not be there.

 

[Bigfish502]

So apparently this is a W

Euphyllia generally doesn't have purple/green tentacles. For gold tentacles, they may or may not be there.

Pretty sure I've seen plenty of green and purple tentacle Euphyllia in the hobby, especially on Torches and Frogspawn. Not sure what you're getting at.

 

[Bigfish502]

So this is another screenshot I got of that "purple tip torch" from Cornbred Corals except this is a WYSIWYG post of a single head. Would this still be a frogspawn, torch, or cristata?

 

[VintageReefer]

So this is another screenshot I got of that "purple tip torch" from Cornbred Corals except this is a WYSIWYG post of a single head. Would this still be a frogspawn, torch, or cristata?

Not a cristata

Looks like a frammer

 

[Bigfish502]

Not a cristata

Looks like a frammer

What features give it away?

 

[VintageReefer]

I dont know the exact word so encrustingacto will probably correct me but the tentacle length is consistent with hammer and frogspawn, and frogspawn has multiple tips per tentacle. Being a hybrid/in between coral, not every branch will do that. I see at least 2 that have multiple tips per tentacle. Frammer also doesn’t always have the “bulbous” or hammer shape tops.it can look like this afaik

 

[Bigfish502]

I dont know the exact word so encrustingacto will probably correct me but the tentacle length is consistent with hammer and frogspawn, and frogspawn has multiple tips per tentacle. Being a hybrid/in between coral, not every branch will do that. I see at least 2 that have multiple tips per tentacle. Frammer also doesn’t always have the “bulbous” or hammer shape tops.it can look like this afaik

So basically if it has a few tentacles with a multiple mini tips it can't be a torch or a cristata?

 

[VintageReefer]

So basically if it has a few tentacles with a multiple mini tips it can't be a torch or a cristata?

Some torches do have multiple tips as a random growth abnormality. I have a few torches like this.

Nothing you’ve shown me so far looks like cristata. So that’s off the table until I see predominant skeletal ridges on the top. Normal torch grows over this and you don’t see them.

Due to tentacle length I’m leaning towards frammer. For a few reasons but this is just my opinion

There is short tentacle torch but typically these are also very fat tentacles.

I have a coral sold to me as a natural grafted hammer from a person keeping the parent colony 20 years, so I didn’t argue, but to me it looked like a short torch. Very similar shape and length to the last photo you posted. It didn’t sit right with me that it’s a hammer so I asked for an id here and got mixed answers and many said it was a frammer

You’ll have to wait and see what they grow into. Might grow long and become regular torch. Baby torch also has short tentacles

Baby torch

But in less than a year…

 

[thamnasteroid]

Pretty sure I've seen plenty of green and purple tentacle Euphyllia in the hobby, especially on Torches and Frogspawn. Not sure what you're getting at.

Frogspawn are Fimbriaphyllia. I have never seen the green-tentacle-purple-acrosphere color-morph on a torch; this coloration was partially used to infer Euphyllia paraglabrescens's position in Fimbriaphyllia in Luzon et al. (2017), I think.

 

[thamnasteroid]

So this is another screenshot I got of that "purple tip torch" from Cornbred Corals except this is a WYSIWYG post of a single head. Would this still be a frogspawn, torch, or cristata?

That's actually a hammer, not a torch. Note the tentacle length.

 

[Bigfish502]

So I talked with the vendor that sold me the cristata torches and he says they only originate from one region in the Pacific. He didn't say where but I suspect Tonga because I've seen other cristata torches being labeled as "tongan micro torches". So question is, is every torch from Tonga a cristata or are there Euphyllia glabrescens there as well?

 

[VintageReefer]

So I talked with the vendor that sold me the cristata torches and he says they only originate from one region in the Pacific. He didn't say where but I suspect Tonga because I've seen other cristata torches being labeled as "tongan micro torches". So question is, is every torch from Tonga a cristata or are there Euphyllia glabrescens there as well?

Regular torch comes from numerous places including tonga

cristata are found in the Indo-West Pacific in the Philippines, New Caledonia, and around Australia including the Great Barrier Reef and Dampier Archipelago.

Cristata would have exposed septa
They are commonly sold as grape coral

 

[PharmrJohn]

Zoom in on the pic he posted. The tentacles are textured.

Are you speaking of the color variation on the tentacles? Otherwise, these old eyes can't see it......