What type of xenia is this?

[jbowles]

I was at the LFS today and they had this frag of xenia that i couldn't pass up. Only thing is when i look for xenia on the net i can not seem to find any that resemble this one. It has hundreds of polyps on the rock and they are all thin, with one head on top of each stalk. The tallest one is only about 3/4 of an inch tall. Most of the xenia i find online are much larger and look totally different. The picture i got was the best one i can get. It shows the color at least, they have a star shaped head on them as well. Any help is greatly appreciated. i will also add the frag is a bit smaller than a baseball.

 

[yetee]

doesnt look too much like xenia to me. I am taking a wild guess but I would say its some sort of pipe organ. what does the base look like? are the stalks coming out of tubes or are they coming out of a soft tissue?

here is a link to a pic of a pipe organ
Pipe organ coral image by lbmcse on Photobucket

Edit:
could also be some type of star polyp. if you can get a better pic it will help

 

[Zer0]

I agree with yetee, however we can't really tell from that picture. Can you get a better or more focused picture than that? It kindof looks like a ric from my view.. but that could be because the polyps aren't opened.. assuming it has polyps.

 

[yetee]

Yeah when I saw the pic I thought Ric. but he is saying it has star heads on it so thats why I am thinking Pipe Organ or white/blue star polyps

 

[Zer0]

Yeah, if it does have star shaped heads then i would definitely go with pipe organ coral. Plus, Xenia are more in the form of "stalks" rather than a patch, like what we see on the coral above.

 

[jbowles]

The stalks are coming out a soft tissue base. So i guess it is pipe organ? wonder why the wholesalers list it as xenia? Either way still very neat looking. Thanks for the help all.

 

[Zer0]

Honestly though.. i'm looking at that picture and it doesn't look like any type of Xenia i've ever seen. So i don't think it is. Also, people make mistakes, sometimes they don't know the name and they see it looks like something similar and they just label it that way. My LFS that i trust for quality livestock named a Blue/Green Chromis a Tazmanian Blue Devil. I was wondering the entire time.. "Where the heck did he get that name from..." Lol

 

[jbowles]

I just looked up pics of the pipe organ and it looks extremely like that, only thing it said pipe organ will have a red kind of skeleton and this just has a white mat base.

 

[yetee]

you are correct. they do have a hard tubed base. I am guessing it is a blue star polyp. did you look at pictures?

 

[Mitchell0605]

It looks nothing like a Xenia. I vote for Blue Star Polyps, though, I've never, ever heard of any colours apart from green and brown.

 

[yetee]

it could also be blue snowflake polyps

Buy Blue Snowflake Polyps Online | Vivid Aquariums

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

From the sounds of it - as the picture leaves a lot to the imagination - I'd go with yetee's link. But from what I know of it, it's not Clavularia. It's either Sansibia, or some variant of Anthelia. And it spreads like wildfire by broadcasting eggs/larvae.