I think my Red Monti Cap is confused!

Well for mine, I bought it from saltycritters and it was listed as a monti cap
Farmed Red/Orange Montipora capricornis

Then again, I guess you never really can tell

 

the coralite structure. Capricornis is a pretty easy to identify by the texture. Most montis don't have the cap's very distinctive growth pattern either, but on a frag that small, the growth pattern is completely undefined.

The turtlensis you posted comes in the following colors too

Color: Dark brown, green or blue, sometimes with cream tips to nodules.

 

Here is the description from corals of the world about M. capricornis;
"Description: Colonies are flat plates in tiers or whorls, sometimes with columns, sometimes encrusting or forming irregularly contorted laminae. Corallites are immersed. There are no tuberculae or papillae. The coenosteum is coarse.
Color: Uniform purple, blue or brown. "

IMO I would consider capricornis's growth pattern to be not so distinct. Here are just a few Montiporas that get confused with capricornis all the time because of the way they grow.
Montipora florida
Montipora friabilis
Montipora foliosa
Montipora aequituberculata
Montipora crassituberculata
Montipora delicatula
Montipora hodgsoni
ect. and ect.

If the OPs Monti was growing upward in tiers and whirls then i would say it could be a cap or maybe one of the others. But it is already growing down, ruling out the possibility of being a cap or any of the above mentioned.

BTW i am not trying to upset anyone by arguing, but i am simply urging everyone to go a little further when trying to identify, instead of settling on the popular "names". You never know when this might be the last one on earth left.

 

true, whose to say this isn't some strange color morph of one of those. But it growing down, at that size, isn't an indication of anything. It's simply too small to tell. Conditions in the tank can great effect tabling. I still stand that's to early to rule anything out.

 

Heh? If you "still stand that's to early to rule anything out." how can you be "completely convinced that it's a Capricornus."?

I will agree you can't be certain at this point. It's a frag, and with out seeing the parent colony and also examining the skeleton under a microscope, then i guess we wait.

 

Really....?

 

Well misidentifying a coral would be like me saying "Oh Kevin I see be the O in your avatar you went to Oregon. Any school with a O for their symbol must be Oregon. Right?" We now know any school with an O must have the same education standards and their football team is all the same.

 

Looks very similar to my red cap.

 

LOL Fine i give up. It is growing in the opposite direction and has a different texture than true Montipora capricornis. The OP wanted know why it was growing weird and i tried to provide a logical answer but I guess we will go with "it's just growing against its nature because of water flow."

 

I appreciate the help, but it seems that I will have to wait and see the result after a little more growth. I looked at your post about the other species it could potentially be and it doesn't seem to fit any of them.