Australomussa rowleyensis is the latest colorful coral import that is sure to become as desireable as Acans of the past and Chalices of the present. LiveAquaria recently shared this quad Australomussa photo and the tie dye specimen in the lower right corner is already creating chatter among LPS coral “collectors”. I’m not a big LPS fan, primarily because of these Chaetodons, but even the colored stick crew ought to take in some of these scleractinian canvases from mother nature.

While aquarists will likely lump Australomussa rowleyensis into the “chalice” category alongside the watermelons and mummy eyes of Echinophyllia, Mycedium, and Oxypora– it’s clearly a different animal. When looking at the coralites  A. rowleyensis looks remarkably like Scolymia vitiensis. Veron writes that specimens from south-east Asia can exhibit unique color combinations including intense reds, yellows and greens.

“Corallites are subcerioid or have short, shallow valleys 8-20 millimetres wide, separated by thick walls. Tissue over the septa is usually distinct in colour and/or texture from tissue over the costae. Septa and costae are sturdy, with large blunt teeth. Colour: In north-west Australia, colonies are a uniform blue-grey or valleys may have concentric cream and green colours. In south-east Asia colonies have a much wider range of colours including bright red, yellow and green.”

The sherbert like colored specimen shown last is compliments of our friends at Reef Odyssey who will have this piece for sale in the near future at a surprisingly affordable price. Check out more photos of these ornate and vibrant corals from Route 66 Marine, here.

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