Yeah, I meant Wilsoni; I mistyped. The one above is a subcerioid wilsoni. I think @Tidal Gardens aquacultures some of their wilsonis. I get my references for Australophyllia from observations on iNat; they are found in subtropical Western Australia.
Never seen that before, I'll be about 2 months before it's re-classified as lobophyllia lolYeah, I meant Wilsoni; I mistyped. The one above is a subcerioid wilsoni. I think @Tidal Gardens aquacultures some of their wilsonis. I get my references for Australophyllia from observations on iNat; they are found in subtropical Western Australia.
Example of a subcerioid Wilsoni:
Credit: Wayne Osborn
Part of why I gave you my IG is because I'm not just a hobbyist...I do a lot which is marine related with a focus on the reefs. If they change a name here, I'll find out in not too long...
Wilsonis are actually (relatively) not closely related to lobos; in Lobophylliidae, they are in the clade shared with Micromussa and Homophyllia. Lobophyllia are in a larger clade which includes Acanthastrea, the lobophylliid chalices (Echinophyllia, Oxypora, Echinomorpha), the meat corals (Cynarina, Acanthophyllia), and Moseleya/Sclerophyllia.
Didn't know that chalice were part of the lobophylliids, interesting
Chalices are a group of corals formerly in the family Pectiniidae. The family got dissolved in the early 2010s, with its genera being split up between two families: Lobophylliidae and Merulinidae. Echinophyllia, Oxypora, and Echinomorpha were moved to Lobophylliidae (Paraechinophyllia was added in 2016), and Echinopora, Mycedium, Pectinia, and Physophyllia were moved to Merulinidae (Pectinia and Physophyllia are considered chalices to a lesser extent).
Thats a tricky one. They're very hard to come by as most of the collected specimens are collected in colder water areas and usually die quickly in captivity. There's one wholesaler I found (were I got mine) that only collects warm water specimens, though it is a wholesaler, so only LFS can order through them and even then they're rarely available, haven't seen one on there in months. Your best bet might be going to different LFS to see if you can find one, but if you do decide to order one from a supplier like TSA, WWC ect, usually the more vibrant specimens are the cold water ones, usually the blue or blue with purple ridge, anyway the ones with more blue are usually the warm water specimens. Though they can be pricey, there's one at my LFS that's $160, which is a really good deal as I've seen ones on websites for $600+ (that's extremely overpriced), got mine for $200, decent size, outstanding color, but other than finding one they're pretty easy in care, low flow, low light, sandbed. Good luck!
I'd take someone who's good at negotiating deals because this seems like one of those corals they're going to try to make a ridiculous profit margin from due to knowing you don't have many places you can go to find one...just don't pay more than you feel its worth I guess is all that can be said. They'll probably say it's rare due to x,y, and z to try to justify a ridiculous price which is fine to pay if it's worth that in your eyes but they're just just salesmen at the end of the day and want to make their money (nothings wrong with that, just don't believe all the claims).
