Caring for Trachyphillias, Part 2: Species and Collection Location

Part two of Caring for Trachyphillias in the Reef Aquarium

In part two of this series we'll be going over one of the most overlooked factors in how Trachyphillia will fare. For some reason Trachyphillia from Indonesia and the Solomon Islands tend to do much better than those from Fiji when introduced into the reef aquarium. In my opinion, this is due to the depth of the collection areas in Fiji, but it could also have to do with any number of other environmental factors. It's easy to forget that there's still so much about this hobby that we don't know!

So now the important question is, how can you tell some of the more problematic Trach's from the ones with more longevity? Fortunately they all have some very distinct attributes that are unique to the location from which they're collected.

Let's start with the easiest ones: Indonesian Trachyphillia. Your standard Indonesian Trachyphillia is small, oval shaped and fluffy. No septa skeleton ridges poking through, just a little bundle of color. It's all this coral is and unfortunately all it will ever be. Great for nano aquariums but for the most part easy to be overlooked in any larger reef system.

These do, however, tend to be the brightest of the Trach's, and the ones with the best survival rates. Due to their bright colors they're also the ones most likely to get burned by too much light though.

Next is your standard Fijian Trachyphillia. They come in better sizes and shapes than the Indonesian varieties and the colors can be just as bright, but unfortunately they have the lowest survival rates of any Trachyphillia. I believe it's due to the fact that they come from fairly deep areas and are unaccustomed to light since they do very well when introduced into an area in your tank that has almost no light at all.

So how do you tell these open brain coral apart from the rest? The very widely spaced septa in the skeleton ridges. I've added some markings to the picture to show just how wide this spacing is when compared to Trachyphillia from other locations. They can be attached to rock or loose, unlike the Indonesian Trach's that are always found as loose, unattached polyps.

This picture illustrates your typical problem associated with Fijian Trach's. You can see the flesh around the septa is bleached, which causes the flesh to retract onto the skeleton, where the unique larger septa unfortunately eventually cut through and cause infections. Always look for these signs before purchasing a Fijian Trachyphillia since it can be extremely problematic to bring these back to full health once they begin to not do well.

Very slowly acclimating these new arrivals to your system is vital, and the result will be a healthy Trachyphillia with larger and more unique shapes!

Finally we come to my favorites, the Solomon Islands Trachyphillia. These are generally attached to rock and can have some really unique shapes and colorations. The septa are irregularly spaced and seem to be a combination of the larger Fijian septa interspersed with the tightly grouped Indonesian septa in between.

These are the only Trachyphillia that tend to "fold" into themselves creating some really different shapes. An unrivaled trait in these is that the flesh underneath the folded-in section is usually a metallic green or red, as seen in the top center of this picture. You can see the beginning of this trait occurring on the left hand side of the coral as well. They are also much more commonly seen attached to rocks than in loose polyps, which makes placement on the sandbed a breeze!

As with the other Trach's these need low light at first, but they tend to have a much better chance at recovery than the bleached Fijian ones. In my opinion, they are truly the best of both worlds in terms of Fijian shapes and sizes combined with Indonesian colorations and adaptability to captive systems. I hope you've enjoyed this two part Trachyphillia series!

Images © Miguel Toloso