Australophyllia (Symphyllia) Wilsoni care?

[Starblenny]

Has anyone have had any long term success with these beautiful corals? I've noticed they are more common at LFS (and in sponsor's threads) but when searching about them, it seems like no one has any success with them in the long term.

 

[Starblenny]

After buying/owning a wilsoni, I realized that they like to be fed pretty often and likes alk above 7.2dkh. I keep my tank temp around ~77°F

 

[andrewkw]

I just picked up a beautiful colony yesterday. How is yours doing? I keep my dkh at 7.7 and temp around 77f as well. Softy dominated system where every coral gets target fed once a week as well as some broadcast feedings. I have in the past but stopped dosing amino acids but I think I will start up again.

Here is mine just in sunlight

I feel like I could target feed it now but I will give it a couple of days to settle in. I'm going to have to move it a bit too. It is sitting on bare glass, for something like this I'd be willing to put a small sand pile around it if it's actually needed but it's skeleton is so thick I don't see how it could tell it's not on sand.

It was cut in half right before I purchased it then spent 8hrs in a bag. Looked great in the bag and obviously this morning. I did give it an iodine dip prior to adding it to the tank. The cut is pretty clean so I don't think I have to be too worried about it. I am a little curious why these are hard to keep. I have been keeping Aussie lps since the first export so I'm not that worried, but maybe I should be? I hope this will be a centerpiece coral for years to come.

 

[twistedfinn967]

That looks pretty awesome in just sunlight, good luck!

 

[andrewkw]

Here is a top down pic :

I'm still really confused as to what makes these guys difficult other then they don't tolerate warmer water?

This piece was still in Australia a few days ago, the store owner was happy to cut it in half the day after landing, I then kept it in a bag for an 8 hour car ride home and it's looked great ever since. You can see it's expelling some waste in the picture. It hasn't gotten super puffy but it did appear to capture at least a little bit of food already. I'm going to have to move it a bit since it's almost right up against the front glass.

 

[Dr. Dendrostein]

Beautiful , thanks for sharing, comrade

 

[andrewkw]

Bump.

My wishful thinking theory is because these guys are not very common and the really rainbow coloured ones are really expensive no one is talking about them. I do recall initially there were some issues with long term care of Australian Zoanthids but that seems to have gone away. The few articles I have found have mentioned an aversion to warmer temperatures and slow recovery of damaged flesh. The damaged flesh has me concerned since mine was cut in half just after landing as mentioned.

https://reefbuilders.com/2016/02/04/australophyllia-is-the-new-home-of-symphyllia-wilsoni/
https://saltwateraquarist.com/wilsoni-coral-care/

The second article includes some generic information that is generally not going to be accurate (dkh 8-12, salinity 1.023-1.025) adding stuff like that does generally make things seem less credible especially since most people keep their salinity at 1.026 Anyway I'd love to hear some more thoughts.

 

[andrewkw]

I'm pretty sad to report mine looks to be on it's way out. First it really bleached but still showed regular puffiness and continued to eat meaty foods but the bleaching got worse and worse. I lowered the temp from 78ish to 75ish but that does not seem to have helped. The one "spike" is my alkalinity has jumped to 8.9 when I usually keep it 7.7 - 8.0 all other parameters are basically unchanged since I got the coral end of april. Interestingly nothing really seems effected by the temp drop other then me. The water is noticeably colder to the touch. The other issue it had is it caught a loose rhoadactus mushroom and that caused 1-2 polyps to die, probably from trying to eat it, but the tissue loss never spread past that. The rest of the colony is just wasting away.

It never got a lot of light, on the bottom of a 24" high tank with some larger leather corals above it shading it from Kessil a360. My own overconfidence has gotten the best of me. While they do look and act like many similar LPS there is obviously something more to this species then just the fact they come from slightly cooler water. Keeping a mixed reef where most things thrive I thought this guy would too. Seeing a nice large colony also got the best of me. This is the most expensive coral I bought in 5+ years.

 

[twistedfinn967]

So sorry to hear that. I've been there, it's like a boot to the stomach.

 

[Xanthurum]

Bleached doesn’t always mean dying, it could make a comeback. Keep us posted.

 

[andrewkw]

Bleached doesn’t always mean dying, it could make a comeback. Keep us posted.

I was not that concerned initially with the bleaching. It has been bleached for some time, it's the receding tissue that has me really concerned. It's a crappy cell phone picture above but you can really see the skeleton. I don't intend to give up but at the same time I'm not sure what else I can do. I may move it to my sump where it won't get any light and very low flow (I have a macro algae less fuge).

 

[JCOLE]

Maybe an iodine dip to help with healing, etc? Just a thought. Sorry to hear about this.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I'm pretty sad to report mine looks to be on it's way out. First it really bleached but still showed regular puffiness and continued to eat meaty foods but the bleaching got worse and worse. I lowered the temp from 78ish to 75ish but that does not seem to have helped. The one "spike" is my alkalinity has jumped to 8.9 when I usually keep it 7.7 - 8.0 all other parameters are basically unchanged since I got the coral end of april. Interestingly nothing really seems effected by the temp drop other then me. The water is noticeably colder to the touch. The other issue it had is it caught a loose rhoadactus mushroom and that caused 1-2 polyps to die, probably from trying to eat it, but the tissue loss never spread past that. The rest of the colony is just wasting away.

It never got a lot of light, on the bottom of a 24" high tank with some larger leather corals above it shading it from Kessil a360. My own overconfidence has gotten the best of me. While they do look and act like many similar LPS there is obviously something more to this species then just the fact they come from slightly cooler water. Keeping a mixed reef where most things thrive I thought this guy would too. Seeing a nice large colony also got the best of me. This is the most expensive coral I bought in 5+ years.

So sorry, bro. That's exactly what happened with mine too. No clue what went wrong. I want another, but I'm afraid...

 

[Brian1f1]

I’m going to jump on here since this thread has the attention of folks who’ve worked with Wilsoni. Hope OP doesn’t mind. I’ve had the pictured one for little more than a year. It thrive for most of that time. It stopped opening fully for a whole a couple months back. My purple tang has taken to nipping at it sometimes. It still typically opens pretty well and eats. Recently it developed two small necrotic spots, but continued to behave normally. I don’t know if it got stung, from nipping, or if it’s from some unknown cause. The recession has been quite slow, advancing very slowly over the course of a month that I’ve noticed. It still inflated more than in the picture and eats. I was hoping it would heal and stop receding...

So, I’m not equipped to saw it, I don’t think. Should I dip it in something? Is there any hope for a specimen of
wilsoni like this?

 

[andrewkw]

I’m going to jump on here since this thread has the attention of folks who’ve worked with Wilsoni. Hope OP doesn’t mind. I’ve had the pictured one for little more than a year. It thrive for most of that time. It stopped opening fully for a whole a couple months back. My purple tang has taken to nipping at it sometimes. It still typically opens pretty well and eats. Recently it developed two small necrotic spots, but continued to behave normally. I don’t know if it got stung, from nipping, or if it’s from some unknown cause. The recession has been quite slow, advancing very slowly over the course of a month that I’ve noticed. It still inflated more than in the picture and eats. I was hoping it would heal and stop receding...

So, I’m not equipped to saw it, I don’t think. Should I dip it in something? Is there any hope for a specimen of
wilsoni like this?

Personally I would leave it alone and only dip it if it gets worse. Iodine based dip for infections.

I really thought mine would be done by now but it’s looking a little better. Got it to eat almost half a teaspoon of coral frenzy.

 

[luv2lopeqhs]

Not sure if I can help here but I have had a Wilsoni in my Waterbox 20 Cube for several months that’s absolutely thriving. It actually looks even better than when I purchased it.
I’m finding mine likes to be kept in similar conditions to acans. Moderate light and moderate water flow. Some target feeding of lrs nano reef frenzy @ night when the lights are out. I also broadcast feed Red Sea A&B Coral Nutrition and Oyster Feast a few times a week. I run a shrimp and crab free system and I have no fish that pick on anything. 2 clowns and 2 assessors.
With the bleaching I’d say maybe your white or uv level on your lights might be set too high for its liking. One of my acans paled out like that once....it was the only one affected...and so on a suggestion from one of the guys from my awesome lfs we adjusted those parameters on my lighting schedule and it improved rapidly. I can send you a pic of my lighting schedule if you’d like it and any water parameters if you’d like them if you think they’d help just pm me

 

[Hemmdog]

Personally I would leave it alone and only dip it if it gets worse. Iodine based dip for infections.

I really thought mine would be done by now but it’s looking a little better. Got it to eat almost half a teaspoon of coral frenzy.

That’s extremely impressive you revived that. I thought it was a goner for sure. Keep it up! That’s a beautiful colony!

 

[reefsponge]

Anyone out there keeping wilsoni for greater than a year? And if so, what type of conditions have worked best? I would love to know where and what type of reef in the wild they are being collected from as well as there natural food.

 

[Brian1f1]

Anyone out there keeping wilsoni for greater than a year? And if so, what type of conditions have worked best? I would love to know where and what type of reef in the wild they are being collected from as well as there natural food.

I’ve had the green one pictured above for 13 months. It thrived most of the time but may be declining slowly now. They come from cooler water, I don’t know what their natural food is but the general consensus is that they eat well and that they need to eat.

 

[reefsponge]

I’ve had the green one pictured above for 13 months. It thrived most of the time but may be declining slowly now. They come from cooler water, I don’t know what their natural food is but the general consensus is that they eat well and that they need to eat.

Does yours get any direct light? Yours looks rich in color, many others including myself seem to have bleaching issues that cause a decline.