Is Setosa really a Montipora?

tnw50cal · Jan 2, 2022

The reason I ask is I have a tank(IM 50 Lagoon-see my build thread) and one of the first corals I put in was a nub of Setosa that I broke off of a colony I had going in another tank as that colony was being overgrown by some Bubblegum digi(the digi won). As time went on I added red cap, seasons greatings, Idaho grape and blue polyp cap montipora. Tank also had regular green and TNT red anacropora in it. I bought a frag of green monti cap from the LFS and missed the montipora eating nudibranch eggs on it. Within weeks all the above listed montipora was eaten to death except the setosa. The setosa was never touched by the nudibranch and is still doing great. After a few months fallow with no montipora in the tank(to starve the MEN) I started over with new monti caps and all are doing well 6 months later.
Any ideas? Is setosa really a montipora? Has anyone ever had their setosa eaten by montipora eating nudibranch?

Labridaedicted · Jan 2, 2022

It is definitely a montipora (Montipora setosa is actually the species). I've never seen monti eating nudis on it before, personally, but I would definitely assume that they could be subject to being eaten.

tnw50cal · Jan 2, 2022

Labridaedicted said:
It is definitely a montipora (Montipora setosa is actually the species). I've never seen monti eating nudis on it before, personally, but I would definitely assume that they could be subject to being eaten.

In the last few years a lot of species of coral have been moved to different families than they were in. Example Acans.

Labridaedicted · Jan 2, 2022

In the vast majority of those cases the taxonomic adjustment is due to genetic mapping. It would not be out of the question that the Genus could change, but morphological it is most similar to montipora. It would not surprise me to see it bumped into a monotypic genus at some point, though as it is in fact a fairly unusual growth form and polyp density for Montipora species.

I will be interested to see if others have had MEN on their setosa colonies, though. Even within genera, sometimes feeding isn't uniform amongst predators. For example, acropora species being selected by red bugs depending on textural differences.

OneSockERock · Jan 2, 2022

I've questioned its classification based on the lack of nudi affinity too.

Anecdotal of course, but I had the same experience with the nudis avoiding the Setosa frag and instead chomping down on my mystic sunset, sunset, cherry tree, tropic thunder and starry night montis all in the same 10gal QT. Setosa was the only monti in the tank I never found a nudi on during the whole ordeal.

In my experience as well, they at least seem to strongly prefer other montis over Setosa. Whether or not they would have migrated to the Setosa once the other pieces were gone I won't be able to tell. Unfortunately my heater failed in that QT tank, hit 95F while I was at work and nuked em all. Came home to hot cloudy water, dead snails and 2ppm+ ammonia. Sucks cause it had been 3 weeks since I had seen a nudi come off in the twice a week dips, and I was about to declare the war won.

I'm still salty about it as you can tell lol. Live and learn - no more cheap Tetra heaters without inkbirds.

Setosa polyps do look distinctively monti, maybe they produce some natural repellent in their tissues to prevent predation? It'll be interesting to see if this piece does eventually get reclassified with genetic evidence.

I really loved that frag for the oddball it was, I gotta get another piece soon.

tnw50cal · Jan 2, 2022

Labridaedicted said:
though as it is in fact a fairly unusual growth form and polyp density for Montipora species.

Mine didn't get the memo on polyp density

Zekireef · Jan 2, 2022

tnw50cal said:
In the last few years a lot of species of coral have been moved to different families than they were in. Example Acans.

I always though acroporidae had ben well described, there’s bound to be a little bit of play there though. I know there’s a lot of movement within the larger polyp genera, acans being the chief example haha! Mind you though I just appreciate and try my best at growing Montoya and acros, I’m in no way an expert in describing species!!

ScottB · Jan 4, 2022

Count me in as another witness to MENS ignoring setosa. JF Red Hot in my case.

What is everyone's favorite dip for MENS? Melaleuca based stuff seems to get them of pretty quick for me.