Rainbow Acanthophyllia
A variant of Acanthophyllia (Meat Coral) (Acanthophyllia deshayesiana)
Representative Acanthophyllia (Meat Coral)photo — a dedicated image of this exact morph isn't available yet.
The flagship trade grade: a single fleshy polyp banding multiple high-contrast colors at once — typically a red, orange, or magenta outer flesh ringing a contrasting green, teal, or blue oral disc. The most sought-after 'full spectrum' pieces hit reds, oranges, greens, blues and purples on one colony.
📜 Backstory
This is the single most recognizable Acanthophyllia trade designation, listed by name at vendors including Top Shelf Aquatics, World Wide Corals, Queen City Corals and Lucky Corals, and traded constantly on reef2reef (asking prices have ranged from a few hundred dollars to well over $1,000 for collector pieces). It is not a propagated line — each 'Rainbow' is a distinct wild-collected colony graded on how many contrasting colors it shows. Most are wild Indonesian or Australian collection; the lineage of any individual piece is a single wild colony, not a named cultivar.
Keeper tips for this variant
Place it on the sandbed (bottom) under low-to-moderate light (roughly 75–125 PAR) and very gentle alternating flow; meat corals inflate a large tissue balloon and will tear or recede in strong current. Target-feed a meaty frozen food about once a week once the feeding tentacles are out.