Halomitra Pileus: a diamond in the rough!

[scavdog]

This weekend I finally got around to visiting Sea Creatures in Revere. While there I noted quite an abundance of softies and LPS. Among the Fungia and welsophyllia and a few other fairly common items was something that caught my eye.

I quickly asked for Borneman's Aquarium Corals and found my answer on page 257. Halomitra Pileus. A rare fungid! I then purchased this gem and made my way home. SCORE!!!!

Characters: Colonies are large, free-living, thin and delicate, and circular, dome or bell-shaped. They have no axial furrow. Corallites are widely spaced and increase in size as the colony grows. In small colonies, septo-costae radiate in a fan from the initial point of growth or are perpendicular to the colony margin, in which case they form distinct lines of demarcation. Septa have teeth similar to those of Fungia fungites. Tentacles of mature colonies are extended only at night; those of juvenile colonies are commonly extended during the day.

Colour: Pale brown, frequently with bright pink or purple margins. Corallite centres are commonly white. Similar species: Halomitra clavator. Juvenile colonies may resemble Zoopilus echinatus if septo-costae form the pattern described above.

Habitat: Middle to lower reef slopes protected from wave action and lagoons on soft substrates.

Abundance: Usually uncommon.

The second two pictures show the coral pigging out on cyclopeeze.

**note free-loading tang

-Joe

 

[NateHanson]

That's wild Joe!

 

[agent6473]

I'm SO jealous! That's definitely one of the coolest corals I've seen in a while.

 

[Moe_K]

Nice!
Must be tough to get those shots when the LCD on your camera doesn't work.

 

[nunofs]

Wow! So this is the one you were bragging about when I met you later that day Now I see that you had plenty of reason to brag Great find, it's a very interesting coral.

Nuno

 

[Armando]

wow that coral is super cool looking!

 

[scavdog]

Must be tough to get those shots when the LCD on your camera doesn't work.

30 shots later! Not to mention, I lost the USB cable a while back. Last night I scoured the house to find it so I could photograph this thing.

 

[seasno]

Great score Joe!

 

[ScottM]

very cool joe. much better than seeing it thru the bag.

Sea creatures owner used to be a collector himself so he orders right from the divers rather than using a distributor.

he gets some pretty wild stuff.

 

[JeremyR]

Those come from the soloman islands.. had them a few times.. one of my favorite plates. The first one we got was a good 8" in diameter, so they can get pretty large. For me, they all turned a really nice green with bright purple rim once they were in the tank awhile.

 

[ultimatefrags]

Hi Joe,
I'm new at this BR that's a cool pictures you have there.

 

[NateHanson]

Welcome to BRS ultimatefrags!

 

[jango]

Ultimatefrags, Welcome to the BRS...

you have some great looking corals on your site...

 

[scavdog]

Hi Joe,
I'm new at this BR that's a cool pictures you have there.

Hey, Rommel. I'm glad you joined the forum. Get some pics of that sweet tank of yours up. Mark says its unreal.

Joe