# Coral Id - Australomussa?



## goobafish (Jan 27, 2015)

Really love this guy, but would love to ID him so I get the right lighting for him. He was kept in an all-blue led tank, so for now I've covered the white LEDs near him and am gradually introducing white to not bleach.



Thanks!


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

Austrolomussa has a figure 8 shape around the eyes. Generally with the Aussie you will see a centre eye and then a bunch of smaller figure 8 eyes around the rim.

I can't see the figure 8 on this, but maybe it's just the angle.
Get it in the shade, but still with reasonable flow.


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## goobafish (Jan 27, 2015)

It has a very small 2nd head growing on the right:


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## Patwa (Jan 30, 2014)

to me, what you have there seems to be an already extremely bleached _scolymia vitiensis_ which is very similar to a. rowleyensis. Keep it in the shade until it recovers...do not expose to more light. Entice feeding response with oyster eggs and then feed meaty foods when feelers come out.

looks like a pink variant....common colour from Tonga

can you get a top-down? and where did it come from? (country of origin)


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## goobafish (Jan 27, 2015)

Patwa said:


> to me, what you have there seems to be an already extremely bleached _scolymia vitiensis_ which is very similar to a. rowleyensis. Keep it in the shade until it recovers...do not expose to more light. Entice feeding response with oyster eggs and then feed meaty foods when feelers come out.
> 
> looks like a pink variant....common colour from Tonga
> 
> can you get a top-down? and where did it come from? (country of origin)


It started bleaching immediately when I added it to my tank with the bright whites. I tried putting it in a shaded area and blacking out the whites on my lights near it but it didn't seem to improve. Since I have removed one of my fixtures over top of it and it is significantly happier. It started puffing up and is readily accepting food. I have not seen any feelers, it seems to move its body to slide the food into one of it's mouths.

I am not sure on the country of origin, and will take a top down when I get home.


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## Patwa (Jan 30, 2014)

the fact it is feeding is a very good sign! keep doing what you're doing


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## goobafish (Jan 27, 2015)

Thanks! I will try oyster eggs, he's eating Fauna Marin LPS pellets and ReefRoids. I am going to need to find a more permanent solution than removing a fixture, as it seems there is not enough of a shaded spot to accommodate him. Even if I can manage to get him back to health it will take at least a few weeks of significantly darkening a fair portion of my tank, and I am not sure if he will ever be happy under my lighting.

So far I have been trying to acclimate him by using my center fixture, which is on a gooseneck, and I slowly angling the ambient light towards him to acclimate him to the lighting.


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## Patwa (Jan 30, 2014)

there should be no need to remove a lighting fixture or even darkening an area for an extended period of time (or permanently) as you might adversely affect other corals. Can you maybe diffuse the light to that section of the tank with a few layers of eggcrate? might be a unsightly if your tank is in the living room, though.

The acclimation process can take many, many weeks or even a few months, so don't rush it and definitely don't pin down a firm timeline. Also check on your water quality...this can also exacerbate the health of an already weakened animal.

I've owned a couple s. vitiensis over the years (a pink one and teal one I later sold to Jay/Aquatic Expressions). That teal one was under a 400W MH, but well off to the side (but still bright!!!) and it was fine.

EDIT: try to feed meaty foods like shrimp, fish, shellfish meat.....stuff that it would likely eat in the wild


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## goobafish (Jan 27, 2015)

Patwa said:


> there should be no need to remove a lighting fixture or even darkening an area for an extended period of time (or permanently) as you might adversely affect other corals. Can you maybe diffuse the light to that section of the tank with a few layers of eggcrate? might be a unsightly if your tank is in the living room, though.
> 
> The acclimation process can take many, many weeks or even a few months, so don't rush it and definitely don't pin down a firm timeline. Also check on your water quality...this can also exacerbate the health of an already weakened animal.
> 
> I've owned a couple s. vitiensis over the years (a pink one and teal one I later sold to Jay/Aquatic Expressions). That teal one was under a 400W MH, but well off to the side (but still bright!!!) and it was fine.


I will see what I can do to diffuse the light. I was hesitant to add it to my smaller frag/quarantine tank with lesser lighting as I did not want it to have to acclimate twice to two sets of water conditions and lighting. I just ran a full battery of tests yesterday and my parameters should be perfect for it unless it requires something strange.

Glad to hear they can thrive under that lighting, and it definitely makes sense to not set a timeframe, so I will definitely figure out a more permanent solution to keep it shaded for now to put my fixture back on.

I bought it from Reef Boutique and was told it was an Austrolomussa. I will ask him next time I go in what country it is from.


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## Patwa (Jan 30, 2014)

could very well be an australomussa, as they're waaaaaay more common now in the hobby than they were 5-6 years ago, but from the colony you posted, it could also very well be s. vitiensis. Regardless, the care would be the same 

see here


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## Patwa (Jan 30, 2014)

oh, don't mention to Colin that "Patwa" told you any of this.......his head might explode and/or he'd try and battle you on species taxonomy

(yeah, loooong back story to this lol)


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## goobafish (Jan 27, 2015)

I had to frag a large leather colony off my base rock to get a spot dark enough for it, and re-arrange a bunch of coral, but it looks like its paying off. I woke up and it was totally bubbled up, despite the bleaching.

Its now hard to light it up properly for a picture, so I apologize, had to use the actinic flashlight which kinda highlights the bleaching.


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## Patwa (Jan 30, 2014)

how's this one coming along?


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## goobafish (Jan 27, 2015)

It is going really well I think, eats large amounts and bleaching is fading. I love watching it eat, it has large mouths, and uses its puffy tissue to shift solid foods into the mouths.

It has "puffed up" off the rock rather than being flat on it, and its face is textured now rather than stretched and flat. You can no longer see any skeleton though the tissue. When the lights are off, it looks its best. It puffs up a great deal and has a very interesting texture, and it almost looks multi layered.

Time will tell, but I believe my tank is not deep enough to provide the correct color temperature at the intensity it would like. The pink in many places is clear-ish and shows signs of what I believe is receiving too much light. I think it will do fine, but I am not sure if it will ever really thrive in this lighting.

I will have to snap a picture this weekend when I get home from this conference.


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## kwsjimmy (Jan 5, 2015)

*tank, shade,*

Does your tank have a mesh lid of some sort, when I put new anemones in my tank I use a piece of paper or cardboard to help diffuse the light...


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## goobafish (Jan 27, 2015)

kwsjimmy said:


> Does your tank have a mesh lid of some sort, when I put new anemones in my tank I use a piece of paper or cardboard to help diffuse the light...


It has a mesh lid, but wouldn't do much to diffuse light as the mesh is extremelly wide. I have already tried diffusion via paper/newspaper, cardboard ect. Because my tank is very full of corals, it would probably do more damage than good to darken the tank. I would prefer to let it recover slowly while my other coral continues to do well.

Althrough, if the darkening of my entire tank for some time will help with the bryopsis infestation I am fighting, I think it might be a good idea for a little while.


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## Patwa (Jan 30, 2014)

goobafish said:


> I would prefer to let it recover slowly while my other coral continues to do well.


best course of action, imo



goobafish said:


> Althrough, if the darkening of my entire tank for some time will help with the bryopsis infestation I am fighting, I think it might be a good idea for a little while.


crank your mag levels up to above 1500ppm...that should help as well


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## goobafish (Jan 27, 2015)

Patwa said:


> crank your mag levels up to above 1500ppm...that should help as well


Unfortunately although I felt like I was extremely well-researched in bryopsis removal, nothing has been effective.

My mag has been over 1500ppm w/ tech m for quite a few weeks now, all affected frags (besides Acro) have been dipped 2-3 times in hydrogen peroxide already. I do manual removal every 2 days, using a UV filter set to kill algae spores, my skimmer skimming really wet, and the tool I use to remove the algae is dipped in R/O water after each use.

I have bryopsis eating nudibranch, fully stocked on emerald crabs and hermits.

At my last manual removal (yesterday) it was worse than ever. It was like a forest on every single rock and most frags.

I would really like to find a baby Foxface I can borrow/buy to help me out. It is getting very tedious.


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## Patwa (Jan 30, 2014)

yikes...sounds like you have a serious prob there....best of luck with it! not sure a Foxface would do anything...FME, they go for bubble algae....but I could be wrong.

ALSO...came across this article...
http://reefbuilders.com/2014/12/16/kiss-australomussa-goodbye-parascolymia-rowleyensis/


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