Pink nepthea with dark spicules - Koji Wada Pink Nepthea, or just lowercase pink nepthea?

[Tired]

I'm in a thread over on nano-reef.com discussing potential slower-growing soft corals, and someone mentioned this Japanese pink nepthea. When I looked it up online, all the frags were $100+, so I figured I wouldn't be getting one.
Well, I went to my LFS to get a cleaner shrimp that same day and thought to ask if they ever get nepthea. The guy pointed me towards the tank in which they keep their decent-sized, not-super-high-end corals, and lo and behold- three or four pink neptheas, $40 each. I grabbed one, of course.

It's not opened up fully today, and I didn't think to take a picture in the sale tank, but between the polyp shape and the visible spicules, I'm convinced this is a nepthea. So now I'm curious if it's the fancy named kind, or just a similar-looking one. The kojis seem to have white spicules, while this one pretty obviously doesn't.

I'm happy with it either way, don't get me wrong. It's pretty. Hopefully my clowns like it, though I'm going to be putting this frag away from their current host (a patch of hair algae) at first. They can have some once I get a backup going.

 

[ryanjohn1]

I have a piece. 3 years grew half inch. I’ve thought it was dead so many times

 

[Tired]

Of this exactly, with the dark spicules, or something similar?

 

[ryanjohn1]

Of this exactly, with the dark spicules, or something similar?

Similar

 

[ryanjohn1]

Now it is attached to a rock that has bsp that my clowns are hosting on so it is being pestered constantly

 

[Katrina71]

Look at Unique corals. They have the original koji wada strain. You could compare.

 

[Tired]

Ah, that's useful, thanks. In that case, this is not one of those, because their pictures (and the pics I'm finding of ones grown out from them) have pale spicules.

 

[MoparMike97]

I could be wrong, but that looks like a Dendronephthya to me

 

[Tired]

I sure hope not. The guy did say this is a photosynthetic coral, and this place usually knows their stuff, but I suppose he could have gotten it in mislabeled.

How would I tell the difference? Wait for it to fully open up and take some pictures of the polyp shape?

 

[Katrina71]

No matter, it's very pretty!

 

[MoparMike97]

I sure hope not. The guy did say this is a photosynthetic coral, and this place usually knows their stuff, but I suppose he could have gotten it in mislabeled.

How would I tell the difference? Wait for it to fully open up and take some pictures of the polyp shape?

Getting pics when it's fully open would definitely help with a positive ID. I'll openly admit, I'm not an expert with the NPS softies or their identification by any means, perhaps @Northwest_Scapes_ could help in that regard. The growth structure, polyp arrangement and coloration just doesn't look like Nepthea to me

And with a little googling, I found this pic of a Chromonephthya that looks very close to what you have.

 

[Tired]

Oh no, that does look pretty close. Welp. It also seems to have a brittle star living on it, which I see a mention of in another thread on here that discusses similar corals.

I could swear the other frags didn't look like that- a bit paler and a lot fluffier. Maybe those were actual neptheas and, by some weird coincidence, this was also in there? I might call the store and ask if the others all have those lines on the stalks. Maybe I can swap this out if the others are proper neptheas, as I'm not looking to do the amount of feeding a NPS coral needs.
(That's likely just wishful thinking.)

It got more upset at the new spot I moved it to and flopped over limp, so I've put it in a slightly different spot to see if it likes it there. Whenever it finally puffs back up properly, I'll come back with a picture.

If it does turn out to be NPS, I don't suppose anyone in Central TX wants this thing? It is quite pretty.

 

[Tired]

Yeah, that's not a nepthea. Sorry for the obscured photo- this is the spot it seems to like a bit more.

Alright- they were closed Monday, but I called the LFS today. Bothered the poor lady who mostly works in freshwater by trying to describe my question about the spicules of the other frags in the tank, so she transferred me to the saltwater guy, and he confirmed that the other frags in the tank do actually appear to be neptheas. This is the only one they had like this.
I'm going to exchange it. They get enough customers that they have a decent shot at someone who's actually equipped to care for this thing. Hopefully, if they don't sell all the others in the meantime, I'll be back with a photo of whatever those other corals are.