The Open Brain Coral (Lobophyllia)

The Open Brain Coral (Lobophyllia)

Do you feel like your reef could use a higher I.Q. Score? The number one cause of a stupid aquarium is a lack of brains! Okay, maybe the brain coral does not help much in the intelligence factor but they do add a massive increase of awesomeness. Open Brain corals add a certain fluff of color that is not available in other types of coral. The Lobophyllia can eat very large morsels of food, so they are fun to watch. They have many names: Large Flower Coral, Modern Coral, Meat Coral, Flat Brain, Carpet Brain, Colored Brain, and Lobed Brain. They come in any variation of color from bright red to gunship gray and everything in between. The Lobophyllia is a very varied species.

They are semi-aggressive and have sweeper tentacles. During the night they stretch them out during feeding to capture food and keep their area free of trespassing corals. They must have adequate space around them. They are not hard to keep by any means. They simply require high lighting and moderate current, preferably a wave motion. They will spread onto surrounding rock and also create their own skeleton as they grow and colonize the area. As they grow you will need to move any corals further away to prevent a stinging war.

lobo feeder tentacles image via AquaSD

Keeping your water clean and stable is very important like with other corals. Testing and maintaining calcium, alkalinity, and pH will ensure supreme growth and longevity. A calcium reactor or kalkwasser may be something to invest in if you have a large stony coral population or a small tank. The coral grows polyps like an Acan or a favite coral, so you do not have to feed each polyp if you do not want to.

lobo feeder tentacles image via AquaSD

To feed a Lobo you should wait until night time when it has its feeder tentacles out. You will notice them sticking out around the mouth. Turn off the pumps and let the water calm. You can feed them anything from tiny plankton to large pieces of krill. They will grab onto it and pull it into their mouths, usually spitting out the waste later on. This will cause large inflation in sizes which may last for quite a while. Like anything on this planet, the food intake dictates its growth speed.

Inland bandsaw

These corals are very easy to frag in comparison to the Wellso Folded Brain, which grows as a single polyp. Simply use a tile saw and slice the heads apart and glue them to a plug to heal and become full again. Keep the water stable to reduce the chance of infection during the healing process. If the coral starts to look bleached or is not responding to food you may need to reduce the lighting and flow while it recovers.

The Lobo is known to have spontaneous problems with feeding and receding. In a perfect reef it still has a random chance of coming down with the “Lobo Flu.” This is when you need to treat the colony like a frag and place it in less light and flow. Try inducing its feeding mechanism with Shrimp Eggs until it finally puts its tentacles out regularly again. Once the Lobo is back to good health you can start to move it back to its original spot.

image via Sexy Corals

Lobos are a great addition to any tank no matter the skill level. As long as you keep the parameters reasonably stable, the only problem you should encounter is wanting more of them. The Lobophyllia is one of the coolest corals on the market. They are usually the among the first corals to be sold so make sure you know what days your LFS gets their shipments in! Online vendors are a great choice when trying to locate those Rare Color morphs. They look amazing under actinic lighting and if you are up when they are you can spot some very cool feeding behavior. This is one coral everyone should have in their reef. Check out the LPS forum for all types of first hand encounters with this awesome species.

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