Rose brains

[davejnz]

I finally got these lovely Caribbean Rose brains(Manicina areolata) last month.I traded some frogspawn frags and a piece of LR for them.I have been searching for them for the past 4yrs with no luck.Being from the Caribbean/Atlantic waters,they are illegal to collect/sell.The only way to legally get them is to find them as hitchikers on Gulf/FL LR.I just put them in the new 75gal tank 2 days ago so i was finally able to photo 2 of the 3.

[davejnz]

The Rose brains were a bit receded when i got them.They had been in my 250wMh 40breeder.They didn't care for the bright halide lighting and the purplish one was receding.The blue one started getting really pale,close to bleaching so it was time to move them.I hope to update this thread in a few weeks with pics of my 2 Roses making a recovery.

[davejnz]

updated pics with 6500k flourescent lighting

[jerryc]

Looks smiler to a lobo but not as fleshy and a darker red

[davejnz]

Actually Jerry,they're a member of the Faviidae family.Lobphyllia is in the Mussidae family.There are 2 different types of these corals.1 of which are the one's you see,they are found attached to LR.The LR farms in the Gulf of Mexico are usually in 50'-75' of water.The water clarity in the Gulf isn't very clear like the patch reefs found further south in the FL Keys/Caribbean.These corals seem to do best with moderate lighting where as the other type of this species prefers brighter lighting.This type has a conical shaped skeleton and lives in the sand.Very similiar to a Trachyphyllia geoffroyi(Open Brain).Both types share the same meandroid skeleton too just like the Open Brains have.