ok… one single species of duncans… duncanopsammia axfungia (sp.?) but i have captured pics of 2 “uncans” that r completely different! someone explain please!!!
#1 seems to be the standard in duncans. branching, green flesh. fast grower and multiplies very quickly when fed well along with decent lighting.
and #2 looks to be more on the encrusting side. browm/marroon flesh. larger heads, polys almost “longer” with longer fingers around the head. when pissed off, it almost resembles a pagoda cup visually. seems to be slower growing and multiplying…
first of all, nowhere i have looked seems to mention anything other that one species of duncan. i thought maybe a location thing, but these 2 corals r pretty different to be the same species imo. no question they r both duncans… in look of the heads, reaction to disturbance and feeding behavior. both seem to be pretty hardy. im stumped…
Will respond to your question on Monday as I love Duncans and can give some input. But first of how much for the second one? Is that at Fish Bowl?
There are different species, but most are the same, and there is also cross breads of things. Will explain in detail later. No much litterature in the books as this corals has only been heavily imported in the last 4 years or so.
Called fish bowl and they are there of course. Sweet price for a beautiful piece, but two rich for my blood as I just ordered bulbs and cleaned out my bank account.
Easy to tell if there is a such thing as an uncan. Google search, "Your search - “uncans coral” - did not match any documents. "
i believe there is only 1 duncan. it will look differently depending on where it was collected. just like acan lords- some have small polyps, some have big polyps, some are red, some are green…
I stand corrected. I can only find documentation for one species. This does not mean that they won’t describe three species in the next year as things are constantly being reclassified. I will say that I have had two different colors which have grown side by side in the same conditions for over a year now and are VERY distinguishable still.
Of the wild collect specimens there are dramatically different growth structures likely depend on local flow, light, and nutrients. Some come in with long branches with only polyps at the tips, while others are more like a boulder coral with enough polyps that you can’t even see the base. Some sites have claimed to have “Blue Duncans†while others have some images of Ducans which appear to have a purple base. I’m looking to get my hands on both, but kind of hesitant as I have heard of purplish ones changing colors fairly quickly in captivity.
hey jon, sry about the confusion when u called. (im not sure she knew exactly what u were asking) the piece has 14 full heads and at least 1 new head starting that i saw. and the base is purple/brownish… the exact piece thats in the pic. i have fragged the duncans of the sort like the first pic a few times with zero issues thus far, but this guy is gonna take some heavy equipment (that i dont possess!!) so unless i grow some gonads and try it, its gonna have to go as one big piece… hence the pretty cheap price.
[quote=“Jocephus, post:6, topic:2582”]
I saw this one in person today, much more impressive than the picture indicates.[/quote]
i purposely pissed it off so i could get a pic of the structure. when open, no body is seen at all…
Just so you know two of the DRC sponsors(will leave there names out) have had trouble with importing Duncans and cutting them up too soon. I think part of the trouble was with glue over live tissue leading to an infection which swept through the frags. While it did not seem to completly kill the coral while they had them it made the corals look like crap and they seemed to be on the way out.(both companys lowered the prices on the corals and moved them out before they completly crashed, so who knows if they made it)
If a hobbyist dips a duncan when they get it and keep it healthy and well fed they tolerate some brutal fragging. Fragging a LPS in LFS water where corals are constantly being added from all over the world is a much higher risk.
actually, on the last piece we got in, i didnt glue to anything. cut… iodide dip for 30 sec to a min… and just set back in rack. BUT we did have the piece for about 2 weeks b4 cutting. which helped immensly imo. made sure they were acclimated and feeding well. great info jon.
Basically what I was stating above was that the color could be either a phenotypic or a genotypic variation. I have heard of the purples changing color. I also know that the more branch like ones in the typically reef aquarium will usually grow more tightly packed and develop more polyps.(from what I have experienced and from the feedback I have heard from other hobbyist)
This being said my Duncans being kept in the same tank, touching each other since Nov 2008 remaining very different colors says to me they are different genotypes. Andy who works at Premium Aquatics has also had Duncans for years in the same tank that remain different colors.
Growth structures may mostly be a phenotypic expression while color could be either genotypic or phenotypic.
Let me know if what I am saying isn’t clear, I can try to re-word it.
genotypic variation is just the genes passed down to the progeny, not all of them will be expressed. hence the different phenotypes which are accounted by the environment. it’s interesting that both corals which you perceive to be different wouldn’t exhibit the same phenotypic characteristics. again it wouldn’t necessarily mean you have two distinct sub species or even species. i think morphology would be a greater characteristic of distinction to distinguish between possible species.
Trying to align genotype/phenotype and species/subspecies is a losing battle. In my experience, DNA can help to cement taxonomy, but not define it. My bet is on environmental factors.
