Not sure what is going on with this unusual looking colony of Galaxea, but we’re glad that Bruce Carlson took the time to film it. Unlike the typical Galaxea fascicularis that we see in the aquarium trade, this Galaxea colony has extremely long and widely spaced corallites, with very exert septa that makes us believe that this could be a colony of Galaxea longisepta. As great as this Galaxea coral looks in this video under natural lighting, it would also make a fine aquarium specimen with neon green tissue in between the polyps and a bright white terminus to the corallites.
Although we have access to more stony coral species than ever in the aquarium trade, there are soooo many different coral species out in the ocean which we never see. This colony of Galaxea longisepta from the Solomon Islands is a perfect case in point of how little the hobby knows about sister species of super common aquarium corals. Until we get tired of keeping the same old Trachys and Lobos and Montipora neospongodes, we’ll be missing out on fascinating species from every major stony coral genera.
[youtube width=”680″ height=”400″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WdMunCwN6o[/youtube]
