What is the best LPS VOTE #18!

Reefkeepers Archive · Oct 5, 2023

You know the drill.

Here are our previous winners!

Scolymia
--------------------Scolymia
Cynarina

Frogspawn (branching or wall)
-----------------------------------------------torches
Torches

Favia
------------------favia
Platygyra

Trachyphyllia
------------------------Acanthophyllia
Acanthophyllia

Blastomoussa
-------------------------Duncan
Duncan

Lobophyllia
-----------------------Lobophyllia
Symphyllia

Favities
------------------Favities
Leptastrea

Alveopora
-------------------goniopora
Goniopora

Chalice
----------------chalice
Pectinia

Hammer (branching or wall)
--------------------‐---------------------hammer
Octospawn

Acan lord
-----------------------------acan lord
Acan bowerbanki

Galaxea
-----------------Frammer
Frammer

L. Rowleyensis (australomussa)
--------------------------‐-‐--------L. rowleyensis
Moseleya

Physogyra
------------------Pleogyra
Pleogyra

Cyphastrea
---------------------Cyphastrea
Turbinaria

Helmet "fungia"
---------‐----------------Heliofungia
Heliofungia

Nemenzophyllia
------------------------------------- B. Merletti
Blastomoussa merletti

i cant think · Oct 6, 2023

Cataphyllia is the best by far, I love how they just flow, I nearly got an orange tipped one a few months ago and regret not going for the frags.

Mr_Knightley · Oct 6, 2023

Elegance 100%. Hydnophora is so ungodly ugly, I can't stand it. It looks malnourished and diseased.

encrustingacro · Oct 6, 2023

Fun fact: Catalaphyllia is actually a merulinid (for some reason).

Reefkeepers Archive · Oct 6, 2023

encrustingacro said:
Fun fact: Catalaphyllia is actually a merulinid (for some reason).

Why.....

Reefkeepers Archive · Oct 6, 2023

Mr_Knightley said:
Elegance 100%. Hydnophora is so ungodly ugly, I can't stand it. It looks malnourished and diseased.

Looks to me like a cyphastrea x galaxea hybrid, I personally love it

Reefkeepers Archive · Oct 6, 2023

i cant think said:
Cataphyllia is the best by far, I love how they just flow, I nearly got an orange tipped one a few months ago and regret not going for the frags.

Agree to disagree. Elegance need insane amounts of space. And while beautiful, hydnophora is the only LPS that can surrvive my upper rockwork, picking up a huge slab of it in the next few weeks

encrustingacro · Oct 6, 2023

Reefkeepers Archive said:
Why.....

probably because genetic data says it is nestled somewhere in that mess of a family. I'm trying to find a study that shows where it is placed in that family and what its sister genera are.

Reefkeepers Archive · Oct 6, 2023

encrustingacro said:
probably because genetic data says it is nestled somewhere in that mess of a family. I'm trying to find a study that shows where it is placed in that family and what its sister genera are.

Did some research, trachyphyllia is in that family, and elegance shares a very similar skeletal structure to trachyphyllia, though still dosent make sense on how single polyp species can be in a family primarily made of encrusters

encrustingacro · Oct 6, 2023

Reefkeepers Archive said:
Did some research, trachyphyllia is in that family, and elegance shares a very similar skeletal structure to trachyphyllia, though still dosent make sense on how single polyp species can be in a family primarily made of encrusters

Yeah, Trachyphyllia is closely related to Dipsastraea (Favia) according to molecular data, which is pretty counterintuitive. While elegances and trachys both share a flabello-meandroid growth form, their skeletal morphologies are vastly different. Trachyphyllia have paliform lobes and septa that extend past the thecal wall, and are superficially similar to West-Atlantic Manicina, while Catalaphyllia have not as "exert" septa and are more similar to flabello-meandroid Fimbriaphyllia, which it used to be classified alongside.
I'm currently in school right now, and sci-hub is blocked here, so I can't read many studies. I will probably have better luck finding the study at home.