coral id

at · 07-01-2006, 08:00 AM

Last Saturday (6/24) I purchased a coral at a new LFS. It was labeled on the tank as a Wellsophylia. I talked to the owner and he said it was fairly easy to take care of, moderate current and light. When I got home I could not find a wellsophylia in any of my books. It looks to be a blastomussa wellsi (pineapple coral) from what I can tell. It is doing really well. I guess my question is has anyone ever heard of a wellsophylia?

lReef lKeeper · 07-01-2006, 09:50 AM

TRACHYPHYLLIA,

common names : open brain coral, rose coral, wellsophyllia

region : red sea, indian ocean, western pacific, japan, australia, soloman islands

description : free living flabello-meandroid corals with fleshy polyps often brightly colored.

similar corals : similar in habitat and form to Monicina areolata from the caribbean. wellsophyllia has been synonymized with Treachyphyllia. the name refered to colonies in which adjacentvalleys become fused. Manicina also has different forms that parallel those of Trachyphyllia.

1-10 scale ...
lighting needs : 3-9
water flow : 0-7
Aggressivness : 2
hardyness : 8

i really suggest a book called Corals a quick refence guide by Julian Sprung. very nice book for coral id.

mummra · 07-01-2006, 10:12 AM

ditto on what bobby said (julian sprung is the rock star of the reefing world.lol). the name the retailer is using is no longer valid as i understand it but is still used for a paticular grwoth form of trachyphyllia brains.

lReef lKeeper · 07-01-2006, 10:35 AM

between Eric Borneman and Julian Sprung, the books needed for this hobby are covered. i prefer Eric's book, but Julian's is a less scientific coral ID book. i like Eric's because it goes into scientific details about all the species in the book.

davejnz · 07-01-2006, 11:08 AM

Yeah,Trachyphyllia geoffroyi is the coral that gets labeled Wellsophyllia.The latter is no longer recognized as a genus.These are solitary,sand dwelling corals often collected in turbid water with reduced light levels.IME,these corals need to be fed at least once a week to keep healthy and growing.

at · 07-04-2006, 02:39 PM

It seems all of you guys are right. After I saw your comments , I went back through the books and it wellsophlia wasn't in the index but when you looked under trachyphlia geoffri there it was as an alternate name. Thanks Andy