Wilsoni Coral?

[caddisfly]

Coming next Tuesday! Here's what was said from the seller:

"How's it going. I've noticed you bought the new wilsoni that I posted. Upon
talking to my supplier I realized that this species is even rarer than a
Wilsoni. When you recieve this coral you should contact someone and try to
name this species on your own. He's never seen it and either have I. I do
have three other wilsoni's and this is just a bit different but nicer than
the others. The diver that collects these is a marine biologist and really
knows his stuff so don't take it lightly. You have probably the rarest
coral I've ever seen or heard of in the hobby. I actually kind of regret
selling it. I thought I would let you know a bit about this piece before
you got it. Thanks so much for your order and let me know when to ship.
Thanks again"

[ReefMonger]

That is one spectacular coral. How anyone could love sps I have no idea with all these jaw dropping LPS. And besides we all know LPS would win in a fight.

[clint conway]

It is one spectacular piece.

[JenDub]

Hi Clint,

What type of lighting do you use? I was having a tough time getting a pic of that last Wilsoni when it was in my system.

BTW- We had two pieces of the last wilsoni/mystery coral, the other sold to a local hobbyist at the SW-CFM, when we imported them they were listed as Acanthastrea. Not sure about the new species thing but who knows.

[clint conway]

Do you know who has the other one. I would like to find out. I have it under T5's. It was told to me that this is a new species and it should be looked into. Check with your supplier and look into it. I'm pretty sure you go direct. thanks Jen.

[Duce]

Caddi,
Can you post a pic?

[Meisen]

Here is mine, I will try and get a nicer pic of it, it looks a lot less brown, more green, red and white. Some of the corals posted above are clearly other Symphyllias. The wilsonis look very similar to Aussie Acan lords except the coralites are meandroid as opposed to ceroid.

[sharkbyte1023]

What's sad is i saw one on a site and it had been there for months...this thread starts the price suddenly doubles and it sells. No one wanted it when it just a very nice coral but a thread starts and now all the interest. I bought mine for $69 from a lfs...granted it is a bit smaller but still the same coral.

[Latimeria]

lets see an image sharkbyte1023
so far only the first 2 images are 100% S.wilsoni, the rest are reasonably unlikely to be wilsoni.

I would not recommend fragging them, the frags may last for a while but my experience with these types of corals is that they do not heal well after fragging

A true wilsoni is very easy to frag amongest the easiest of all Mussidae, particularly resistant to bacterial infections, and will tolerate extremes in temperature that other similar species often bleach or die under. This maybe resulted in their wide distribution of tropical to subtropical waters of Western Australia.
Western australia is particularly interesting place because it has intermittent warm water currents flowing from tropical reefs on the western side of a continent. This pressure has probably resulted in more specieiation of tropical corals in subtropical waters. We have over 100 species of corals in 30-35 degrees south. compare this to USA and you would have well developed coral reefs of Washington DC

[sharkbyte1023]

here ya go

[sharkbyte1023]

[JenDub]

Originally posted by Latimeria
lets see an image sharkbyte1023
so far only the first 2 images are 100% S.wilsoni, the rest are reasonably unlikely to be wilsoni.


A true wilsoni is very easy to frag amongest the easiest of all Mussidae, particularly resistant to bacterial infections, and will tolerate extremes in temperature that other similar species often bleach or die under. This maybe resulted in their wide distribution of tropical to subtropical waters of Western Australia.
Western australia is particularly interesting place because it has intermittent warm water currents flowing from tropical reefs on the western side of a continent. This pressure has probably resulted in more specieiation of tropical corals in subtropical waters. We have over 100 species of corals in 30-35 degrees south. compare this to USA and you would have well developed coral reefs of Washington DC

The fragments may survive but I question the viability of the fragments as far as their ability to grow out into a colony in the captive aquarium.

It would be a shame to see the wild colonies of this species chopped into tiny frags that will never grow out (at least not in the time frame the average hobbyist stays in the hobby)...

Seems like people lose sight of the real goal of fragmenting any coral colony; to increase the chance of the individual coral specimen's survival in captivity and to ensure the coral will be viable for perpetual propagation for years to come.

[Meisen]

Well, FWIW my piece came to me as a partially dead 1/2 colony frag and has since overgrown all of its old, once dead skeleton. So IMLE mine is a relatively quick grower and pretty resilent to damage and fragging.

Agreed that some stuff just doesnt frag well. Other stuff just has a minimum frag size that is larger than most folks are willing to make (seems like 1/2" is the standard size for so many of the rarer corals....usually works but obviously not on a coral like this). But I am continually surprised by what is fraggable when you feed and light aggressively and take into consideration the frag size. With the small numbers of these things that get imported (so far that is) and the coolness of them, I am personally OK with fragging mine to see what it will do even if there is a chance that I will lose or stunt my colony. In the back of my head is that Aussie will stop and no one will be able to get these corals again for some time....would be nice if we figured out how to propagate and share them while we can still get them IMO.

Anyway, everything about mine screams Acan as opposed to Symphyllia. In fact that's what I first thought it was when I got it. The 4" meandering coralite valleys changed my mind on that but it still fleshes out and feeds like an Acan lord.

[caddisfly]

Here's some pics of the two I have about three hours after going into the tank. Much thanks to Clint at diamondsinthereef. Great guy to deal with.

Unknown




True Wilsoni

[Latimeria]

Hi Sharkbyte
that is really nice coral, sorry cant give a difinitive answer on the species id

[atf72]

I recently bought this coral and was wondering what it was. It looks pretty similar to what I have seen on this thread. Photos under actinics. What do you think?

[masterswimmer]

atf, I believe that one is called a beautiful coral

swimmer

[MinibowMatt]

Dr. Mac just had this one... I missed it

[ReefMonger]

Thar she is

[Meisen]

There is something significantly different between these corals....the tissue in some has that varible texture on some (like mine) and some have that lobo-like smoothness. The pics I am seeing in Vernon are a closer match to the former. But we all know that you cant really ID a coral via just its tissue color/shape/expansion/texture etc. Its the skeleton that is usually diagnostic.

So anyway, if the "unknowns" are not really wilsoni, what are they? I have dog-eared my references and havent seen anything else that fits the description.

[JenDub]

Originally posted by caddisfly
Here's some pics of the two I have about three hours after going into the tank. Much thanks to Clint at diamondsinthereef. Great guy to deal with.

Unknown

Glad this piece went to a good home, it was my baby for the six months we had it =)

[Meisen]

So any more ideas on what the heck these things are if not wilsoni? The one I have and the majority of the ones posted here look very much like Vernons pic on pg 53 (lower right hand corner pic) but for the fleshyness. Could the fleshyness be a reaction to temperature or stress or something? I seem to remember seeing a few Acans do that when they were stressed but it was pretty temporary. But polyp morphology isnt enough, someones gotta bleach a skeleton so we can ID this thing

I have a decent pic of where mine skeleton was all exposed when I first got it.....it has since overgrown it. But I am not bleaching it anyway.

[Meisen]

So anyway, having poured over Vernon I cant find anything else that looks even close.

[clint conway]

My email to caddisfly is what I was told. He got the original wilsoni and the unknown piece pictured above. Totally different than the wilsoni. Just an amazing coral. Both of them. I love all the pictures. Keep them coming.

[All Delight]

how are these pieces doing?