Coral Genus Identification

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Presented by Charles & Linda Raabe
Mactan Island, The Philippines
© 2008 All Rights Reserved

This is my attempt to make a search for a coral's identification just a bit easier by trying to at least get a start within a genus, once you have an idea of what group it may be within, you can then search that genus for possible specific species at the below link.

CORAL IDENTIFICATION CD

If you are going to have any chance at correctly identifying a coral, you will most likely have to have a skeletal sample of the coral in question. You will also need to become familiar with the termonology used to describe indentifying features. The following links go into such details and will be very helpfull to you if you read these articles. Taxonomy of Stony Corals Taxonomy of Stony Corals Part 2 Taxonomy of Corals Part 3
( soft corals, zooanthids)

Do Note, that most coral species are capable of growing in many different forms or shapes, all due to what reef conditions they find themselves in. The taxonomy of stony corals part 2 will show you photo examples of the many different shapes that corals can form.

FAIR WARNING: Do not go by just the corallite shape, although it will get you within a few genus groups at least. As an example, the first photo shown below left is of an Acanthastrea, yet there are other corals that look very much like it such as the Favia and Favites genus.

IF THERE IS ONLY ONE PHOTO SHOWN, THEN THAT IS THE ONLY SPECIES WITHIN THAT GENUS

ACANTHASTREA