Australophyllia wilsoniis the new name for what we currently callSymphyllia wilsoni. We’ve always known that there was something special about Australophyllia wilsoni, from it smorphology, polyp appearance on from where in the world it comes from.
Compared to otherSymphyllia, the coral formerly known as‘Symphyllia wilsoni’is much brighter, more colorful and much more convoluted than otherSymphyllia. Some colonies and frags ofAustralophyllia wilsonihave a lot more in common with Acan Lords and it also shares some peculiarities too.
For starters,Australophylliais not the easiest coral to keep long term. SureAustralophyllia在水族馆在短期内表现出色,喜欢米吗any other generic LPS. But there’s a reason that captive grown frags of Australophyllia rarely make it past the first or second generation cutting, and that is because this coral can suffer from recession due to injury. While most other corals can recover quickly from such damage,SymphylliaAustralophyllia wilsonitends to slowly recede from points of mechanical damage.
Australophylliacomes to use exclusively from the West Coast of Australia, which is smack dab in Indian Ocean territory making this the only coral that we enjoy in the hobby from this particular ocean. Furhtermore,Australophylliais one of the few known ‘tropical’ stony corals which is commonly found growing among kelp forests, so clearly there’s something different about this coral.
Now we know, that not only based on aquaristic hunch and the unique habitat and geography ofWilsonicoral, that it is indeed special and now resides in its own genus,Australophyllia.The new name and taxonomic change is part of an ongoing effort to clean up thestony coral tree of lifeand is part of a major overhaul of LPS coral taxonomy in a forthcoming paper by Arrigoni et. al. to be published some time this year.