Homophyllia bowerbanki is a classy-looking member of the Lobophylliidae family that we obtain primarily from Australia. The combination of those larger than Lords corallites, collectible color morphs, and patterns to rival their H.australis cousins has made them popular with reefkeepers and a favorite amongst hardcore hobbyists and wholesalers alike. Nic Dos Santos of Ultra Coral Australia admits that H.bowerbanki are his favorite coral species and has built up an impressive collection.
“Bowers are my favorite coral of all with their unique colors,” he told us. “The pictured bower frag colonies were created using one of my new fragging techniques where we blindly cut bowers up into little pieces to force them to build a new colony, and as you can see from the pics it works. These are approximately 3-8 months old and my success rate is 92% under certain arrangements. We are using these larger tiles to frag up a large number of these, then we cut them off when they have fully formed their new colony. For farming purposes, we keep a few and sell a few, but we also grow out and have some of our bower frags at 4th generation.”
Fragging bowerbanki is straightforward and you can cut straight through the corallites, encouraging them to produce new polyps on the cut edge. They are not demanding of strong light or flow, and will put out feeding tentacles as soon as any foods are introduced to the water. Desirable pieces range from solid red to Bleeding Apple, Rainbow, Warpaint, Master, and many other unusual colors featured here by Ultra Coral Australia Pty Ltd.
