Homophyllia bowerbanki, a reintroduction to ‘Bankies’ and ‘Hillae’

It’s been nearly a year now since the familiar Australian ‘Scolymia’ and Bowerbankis were removed from Acanthastrea and placed into their own new genus Homophyllia. Unsurprisingly, most reefers still call them ‘Acans’ by convention, but there is a lot that we can learn by grouping any group of corals properly.

BleedingAppleBowerbanki-homophyllia — An ‘average’ nice mini colony of Homophyllia bowerbanki

The best case in point is probably the distinction between Fungia and Cycloseris disc corals – while both flat and disc shaped, Fungias and Cyclos come from very different habitats. Fungias are more commonly seen in shallow to midwater, in higher energy environments right alongside many SPS corals. Cyclos on the other hand are generally found in deeper, siltier and calmer environments.

The problem in lumping all disc corals as Fungias takes away our ability to give them the proper care in reef aquariums. We wouldn’t lump angelfish and butterflyfish together, and we shouldn’t do it for corals either.

rainbow-homophyllia-bowerbanki — A fantastic ‘Master’ colony of H. bowerbanki showing an absolute rainbow of colors.

Which brings me to back to my original point – Australian Scolies and Bowerbanki are not Acans, and the sooner we make a conscious effort to see them as distinct from true Acanthastrea, and treat them as such, the sooner we’ll come to understand the nuances in their captive care.

The smaller polyped ‘Hillae’ corals are no longer a distinct species, so all of these colonial Homophyllia corals are now commonly called simply ‘Bankies’. Australian Scolies are always an eye catcher at the LFS, reef shows, and home aquariums, but recently we’ve really seen an uptick in the diversity and quality of Homophyllia bowerbanki corals offered to the aquarium hobby.

homophyllia-bowerbanki-yellow-ring-1 — A fantastic colony of H. bowerbanki showing a wild yellow outline to the coral polyps sighted at Reef Raft Canada

We’re finally starting to see Bankies show up with Master, UFO, Warpaint and other colors that are usually reserved for Scolies, and some other great and interesting colors too. It seems that Australian coral collectors are just as aggressive about finding and collecting ever higher quality corals, and now that we can recognize the uniqueness of the two species of Homophyllia, hopefully we’ll have more success keeping and propagating them too.

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Jake Adams

Jake Adams has been an avid marine aquarist since the mid 90s and has worked in the retail side of the marine aquarium trade for more than ten years. He has a bachelor’s degree in Marine Science and has been the managing editor of ReefBuilders.com since 2008. Jake is interested in every facet of the marine aquarium hobby from the concepts to the technology, rare fish to exotic corals, and his interests are well documented through a very prolific career of speaking to reef clubs and marine aquarium events, and writing articles for aquarium publications across the globe. His primary interest is in corals which Jake pursues in the aquarium hobby as well as diving the coral reefs of the world.