Lobophyllia: The Lobed Brain for the Sandbed

Lobophyllia is the brain coral that grows in lobes — thick, fleshy ridges in reds, greens and rainbow mixes, each lobe carrying one or several mouths. The sandbed test separates it from its lookalikes: a Trachyphyllia open brain is a single free-living polyp that sits loose on the sand, while a lobo is attached stony structure that keeps adding lobes for years. Scolymia wears similar colors on a strict one-mouth disc.

Care is standard fleshy-LPS: modest light, gentle flow, and placement where the inflated flesh can expand without rubbing rock. The flesh conceals sharp skeleton underneath — handle by the base, never by the tissue, and never out of water longer than a WYSIWYG photo takes.

Care at a glance

Feed at dusk when the feeder tentacles rise out of the ridges and a lobo grows visibly faster. Around it, keep the same buffer you would give any fleshy brain — the brain coral overview covers who tolerates whom. The species directory has the full map.

Plan for the size it inflates to, not the size you buy

Lobophyllia are among the fleshiest corals in the hobby. A colony that measures four inches of skeleton can carry six or seven inches of inflated tissue in a settled tank, and that tissue will lie over whatever is next to it.

Give one a flat spot with clear space on every side, ideally on the sand or a low shelf rather than wedged into rockwork. Anything it can drape onto, it will, and the coral underneath loses that argument.

Low flow, moderate light, and patience

Strong flow keeps a lobo from inflating, and an uninflated lobo is a lobo that is not feeding itself properly with light. Gentle indirect water is what you want, the kind that moves the tissue slightly rather than pressing on it.

They also grow slowly. A lobo does not tile across rock the way a favia does; it thickens and deepens its existing valleys over months. That is not a sign of a problem, and moving it because it looks stalled is how people cause the actual problem.

Feeding, and the thing to watch for after

Lobos have real mouths and they take meaty food readily, particularly after dark when the feeder tentacles come out. Feeding thickens the tissue and deepens color faster than anything else you can do for one.

The thing to watch is uneaten food trapped in the folds. A lobo has deep valleys, and a piece of shrimp that settles in one and stays there is how you get a rotten patch in an otherwise healthy colony. Feed less than you think and blow the colony off gently with a baster afterward.

When buying, look into those valleys for bare or discolored skeleton, and check that the tissue runs unbroken over the ridges. Ours are photographed in our Key West systems, and on a WYSIWYG listing the photo is the exact animal that ships.

Lobophyllia in stock now

One thing to know before you order: fill your box. Up to 4 spots ship for one shipping charge. A frag takes 1 spot and a colony takes 2, and shipping and the $20 Box & Handling Fee are charged per box. Each box ships UPS Next Day Air for $50, or $30 for qualifying Florida livestock, and livestock orders of $299 or more ship the first box free. If this page puts one coral on your list, it is worth seeing what else belongs in the box — start with corals under $100 or the newest WYSIWYG pieces.

Our stony corals are either aquacultured at the shop in Key West under Florida Aquaculture Certificate #AQ0254072 or conditioned in our Key West systems before they ship, and the photo on a WYSIWYG listing is the exact animal that ships. Corals ship UPS Next Day Air every Tuesday and Wednesday. If you are ever in Key West, come see the raceways.