Common Name: Open Brain Corals

Scientific Name: Trachyphyllia Spp.

Tank Size: Moderate sized tanks of 40 gallons or bigger

Lighting: Prefers moderate to high lighting

Reef Compatibility:

Generally a hardy coral when healthy is some what aggressive and will smaller fish and shrimp given the opportunity.

Feeding:

Zooxanthellate, but must be occasionally fed within the reef tank.

Size: Colonies can reach up to 18”, however most are much smaller.

Summary:

A very strikingly colored coral under heavy actinic lighting with some individuals showing shades of Green and Purple or Red and Pink. It’s a solitary animal that starts life attached to rocks and then become free living and forms a cone shaped skeleton that’s buried in the sand or substrate. These corals are voracious feeders in the reef aquarium and are very adept at capturing small fishes and shrimp. Hermit crabs can often cause problems with this coral resulting in lack of polyp extension. Various Angle Fish and Tangs will often nip at the inflated polyp causing the polyp to fail to extend fully and result in eventual death of the coral.

Personal Experience:

Overall, it’s a fairly hardy LPS coral. Under proper tank conditions its polyp will extend considerably and this coral can grow rapidly. Propagation of this coral while possible is a very iffy proposition and usually not successful. Corals will normally be multi-colored and the color will vary depending on the lighting it resides under. Coral should be placed in a sand bottom, preferably in finer grades of sand. Leave a good bit of room between this coral and others as when the polyp is fully extended it will increase corals diameter by about 3 fold. Like all LPS corals this one too is very prone to “Brown Jelly Infection” and once it’s established on the coral, saving it is unlikely. In my experience, dipping a coral in Lugol’s or SeaChems reef dip will sometimes limit the damage and subsequent loss. While this coral can thrive under intense lighting such as moderate watt halides it must be very slowly acclimatized to this type of lighting.