In the recent day, writing aboutEuphyllia和纤维状腹膜，一个突然的问题打动了我们，那Euphylliacristata, is it纤维状腹膜或者Euphyllia?
我们一直想写有关这种珊瑚的文章，这是我们最喜欢的Caryophylliidae, but we never hear about it, and never see any of them. Even though from Indonesia, there was export quota for this species, we don’t think 1 single piece exported was actually a realE. Cristata，他们都是经典的火炬珊瑚E. glabrescens.
当参加澳大利亚的第一个礁石时，我们注意到，西澳大利亚州的一位收藏家实际上提供了许多收藏家，比我们见过的更多。没有多少人关注他们，但我们马上发现了它们的华丽颜色，包括绿色的尖端。
So why does this coral get so little air time or attention? The first reason, is that, it’s a small coral, it’s very unusual to find colonies of more than 4-5 polyps. The second reason, it’s because it’susuallynot as colorful as other Euphyllia. Most of them have only colored tips, but few rare specimen are bright green with bright orange tips or black with yellow or orange tips (a coloration shared withE. glabrescens), which is to theEuphylliastandard quite colorful.
The third reason, is because they live usually, deeper into the reef, often under bommies, below other corals, pretty much cryptic, hidden life. They are not really easy to spot so that’s why they mostly slipped the collector’s eyes. Meanwhile the classic torch can be found in very shallow water.
The fourth reason, is that their skeleton, is very short, very close to the hard substrate they usually live on, which make them very difficult to collect without breaking them. Their skeleton is very thin and fragile.
The fact that they live pretty much under other corals, tells us, that they don’t need too much light, but could enjoy a couple of meals a week. We’re quite convinced, that due to the particularity of their environment, they can’t really reach large size, and can’t grow very fast. But in Aquarium condition, with more attention to feeding, they could surprise us.
A resumé for Euphyllia cristata would read something like “poor reefer torch coral”, which to be more accurate should be false poor reefer torch coral, or short torch, or the classic common ‘grape coral’.
The funny part, is that it wasn’t included in the genetic study from Philippines that set apart 5 species of former Euphyllia into the Galaxea related group of Fimbriaphyllia. So it looks like, even scientist struggle to find them. But, with a bit of extrapolation, their specificity includes:
- Phaceloid, first and second order septa plunge steeply near the centre of the corallite. Columella is absent.
- Long tubular tentacles with knob-like tips
Same asEuphylliaglabrescens，所以机会是；它应该伴随着不再那么孤独的火炬珊瑚。当我们看着它们时，让我们想起了很多星系的一件事是这些高，薄，非常明显，美丽的隔sa在触手之间伸出来。它使他们看起来像是如此脆弱，如此珍贵。
They seem to like cool water, as they are found in the southern part of western Australia, and in Indonesia, we always found them in places with cool upwelling current. Can’t wait to see more of them!
