Lobed brain coral

Care at a glance

Overview

The lobed brain coral is a fleshy large polyp coral for the low rock or sand of a reef tank. It is best kept by someone with a little reef experience.

Caring for the lobed brain coral

Keep the lobed brain coral under low to moderate light, roughly 80 to 120 PAR. Give it low to moderate indirect flow, just enough to clear waste from its mouths without holding the fleshy lobes retracted. Place it on the lower rockwork or sandbed with real space around it. It grows a wide fleshy skirt well beyond its skeleton.

It needs at least 20 gal (75 L), at 75 to 81°F (24 to 27°C) and a pH of 8.1 to 8.4. It is sensitive to rising nitrate, and levels above about 30 to 40 ppm are known to cause tissue recession. Stable, cleaner water matters more for it than intense light.

It carries zooxanthellae for most of its energy, but it also digests food with filaments from its stomach cavity. Spot feed it mysis or brine shrimp about once a week, with the flow paused for a few minutes. That helps it fill out and color up.

The lobed brain coral is mostly peaceful and lacks the long stinging sweepers of Euphyllia or Favia. After lights out, though, its mesenterial filaments digest the tissue of any coral it can reach. Give it a gap of 6 inches or more from neighbors. It can be fragged by cutting between the fleshy lobes, but it grows too slowly for commercial-scale propagation to be common.

Good to know

Lobophyllia belongs to the family Lobophylliidae. It is named for the lobed, fleshy valleys that give the coral its brain-like folds. A 2012 molecular revision folded the once-separate genus Symphyllia into Lobophyllia. The two turned out to be the same lineage, split mainly by whether neighboring corallites fuse along a shared ridge.

In the wild

The lobed brain coral lives on reef slopes and in lagoons across the Indo-Pacific, especially around Indonesia and the Great Barrier Reef. It usually grows lower on the reef, where light is gentler.

Common questions

Related species

• 

  Grooved brain coral

  Lobophyllia recta

  9.8 in (25 cm) · 26 gal (100 L)

  9.8 in (25 cm)26 gal (100 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Donut coral

  Acanthophyllia deshayesiana

  9.8 in (25 cm) · 11 gal (40 L)

  9.8 in (25 cm)11 gal (40 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Acan coral

  Acanthastrea echinata

  7.9 in (20 cm) · 11 gal (40 L)

  7.9 in (20 cm)11 gal (40 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Chalice coral

  Echinophyllia

  13.8 in (35 cm) · 20 gal (75 L)

  13.8 in (35 cm)20 gal (75 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Acan lord coral

  Micromussa lordhowensis

  5.9 in (15 cm) · 11 gal (40 L)

  5.9 in (15 cm)11 gal (40 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Scoly coral

  Homophyllia australis

  5.1 in (13 cm) · 11 gal (40 L)

  5.1 in (13 cm)11 gal (40 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)