Quote:
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Originally Posted by mantisfreak
According to the December issue of Aquarium Fish Magazine, the red and green open brains, Trachyphyllia geoffroyi and Wellsophyllia radiata respectively, are the same coral but just with a color morph. From now on, both will be categorized under the name Trachyphyllia geoffroyi.
It was also reported in the past that the green open brain (formerly Wellsophyllia radiata) were found in shallow waters but the red brains were from much deeper waters. However, they have now been found living side by side in both environments.
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Actually,
Wellsophyllia spp.and
Trachyphyllia spp. are now combined into the same
genus under the genus name
Trachyphyllia. I have not seen the article in question, but the skeletons are different between the two species.
Trachyphyllia geoffroyi has the flabello-meandroid skeleton with regular septa and a cone shaped base, and these organisms are usually found in soft substrate varying from sugar-sized sand to muddy organic substrates of sea grass beds.
Wellsophyllia = Trachyphyllia radiata is found only on rocky substrates attached to the substrate, lacking the cone-shaped base, and sharing the similar flabello-meandroid skeleton, but with the upper apex of each arch being fused to form distinct separate valleys. This helps to differentiate the two into
T. geffroyi that appears to have one polyp with several folds of the skeleton and coenenchyme around a single oral plane, and the
T. radiata that appears as several polyps with distinct complete ridges around several oral openings. The
T. radiata is seldom imported to the US for the hobby, but may be differentiated by the lack of the cone, and an apparent scar or break point at the base of the skeleton where the specimen was broken loose from its attachment to the rock.
I do not know if there was an actual combination of the two separate spp., and I think that the article may have been a misreporting of the changing of Wellsophyllia and its subsequent combination with the Trachyphyllia genus, however, I could not find a report of any genetic RNA mapping, etc., that would indicate that these two distinct skeletal forms are genetically the same.
Red morphs do seem to prefer lower light conditions, but I cannot substantiate that this is for any other reason than their collection environment. They may well be from deeper locations, but I could not substantiate that in the literature searches I did.
Hope this clears the air on the issue.
