Galaxae or Torch?

[professorquacker]

I've caused some controversy over on reddit, trying to get some advice on why the head on one of my corals died. Instead of that, its turned into a large ID debate lol.

This was sold to me as a Galaxea, but many are saying its a torch. If it is, it was definitely not priced as one ($15). I'm not 100% sold either way, but here is why I lean galaxea. When closed up it has small column heads, basically identical to the one in this post:https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/galaxea-dead-retracted-or-what.317650/

It also has an insane amount of budding, which I haven't seen on a torch before. In my opinion, color and shape looks identical to this in person:https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/galaxea-coral-placement.382593/

What is everyones thoughts? Am I way off base?

 

[Pistondog]

Id say galaxea.
Never seen a torch form like that.

 

[dedragon]

it looks like a galaxea

 

[kevgib67]

If you showed me a small portion I would say a torch but looking at it as a whole, I’ve never seen a torch like that.

 

[Alexopora]

Definitely a Galaxea, as
1. You can clearly see that it is encrusting.
2. The corallites are clearly way too small to be torches.

However I can see why many were confused as they do resemble a mini version of a torch coral. And unsurprisingly they are related to torches.

Here’s some of my collection. They are quite fast growing for an lps and do generally well in medium to medium higher flow.