Coral Identification Guide: 29 Aquarium Corals With ID Notes, PAR, Flow and Placement
Growth form tells you more than color does. Start there when you are trying to name something.
Somebody hands you a frag and calls it a chalice. It might be. It might be a favia, or an acan, or something nobody has named properly. This guide is how to tell, and what each one needs once you have it home.
Coral identification in this hobby is a mess, and there are reasons for it. Trade names get invented at frag swaps. Two corals that look nothing alike wear the same label because somebody’s mother colony sold under it years ago. And the features that actually separate one genus from another are usually small, structural, and invisible in the photo you were shown.
What follows is the reference we use in the shop. Every coral below is one we grow, hold, or ship from Key West, and every entry answers the same three questions: how do I recognize it, what does it need, and what goes wrong with it first.
About the numbers
The PAR figures here are starting points, not targets to chase. PAR measured at the coral is what matters, and it shifts with depth, fixture height, and how dirty the glass is. A coral sitting at the low end of its range that is growing and holding color does not need more light. The lighting guide covers how to measure it.
Left to right: torch with long tube tentacles, hammer with T-shaped tips, frogspawn with forked tips. The tentacle tip is the whole ID.
Three corals, one genus, and the most commonly mixed-up group in the hobby. They separate on the shape of the tentacle tip and almost nothing else reliable. Color will not help you. Size will not help you. Look at the tips.
Torch coral
Euphyllia glabrescens
Illustration. Rounded, slightly bulbous tips on long tubular tentacles. That tip shape is the whole identification.
Long tubular tentacles ending in a rounded, slightly bulbous tip. They hang and flow rather than clustering, and each head sits on its own corallite tube, so the skeleton branches and heads can be cut apart. Under blue light the tips fluoresce hard, which is most of why people buy them.
Torches sting. Sweepers come out after dark and reach further than the coral looks capable of, so give a head at least four inches of clear space in every direction before gluing anything near it.
Illustration. One rounded, bulbous swelling at the end of each unbranched tentacle. Compare it with the split tips of frogspawn below.
PAR 75–150 · Flow moderate, indirect · Placement lower to middle · Feeding beneficial, not required · Aggression high, long sweepers
Euphyllia ancora (wall) · Euphyllia paraancora (branching)
Illustration. The flattened anvil tip is what separates a hammer from a torch.
Tentacle tips flatten into a T or anvil shape. That hammer head is the identification. Two skeletal forms sell under the same name: wall hammers grow as a continuous meandering ridge and cannot be divided without cutting through living tissue, branching hammers put each head on its own stalk and can. Ask which one you are buying, because it decides whether the piece is ever divisible.
Hammers shed tissue from the base upward when they run short on energy. The symbionts sit in the tentacles and oral region, not the body wall, so the base is the part that costs the most and returns the least. Bare skeleton climbing from the bottom while the tentacles above still look inflated is an early warning, not a late one.
Illustration. Each tentacle ends in a flattened crossbar. That T or anvil shape is the whole identification.
PAR 75–150 · Flow moderate, indirect · Placement lower to middle · Feeding beneficial · Aggression high, long sweepers
Illustration. Frogspawn reads bushier and less orderly than a torch because every tentacle divides near the end.
Tentacles branch and split near the tip, so each ends in several small knobs rather than one. The whole mass reads bushier and less orderly than a torch. Same care, same sting, same placement rules as the other two.
Illustration. A torch tentacle ends in one knob. A frogspawn tentacle ends in a handful.
PAR 75–150 · Flow moderate, indirect · Placement lower to middle · Feeding beneficial · Aggression high, long sweepers
Two more worth learning by sight: Scolymia sits as a single fleshy disc with no branching and no second mouth, and Alveopora waves twelve-tentacle polyps that get mistaken for Goniopora, which carries twenty-four. Count the tentacles and the argument ends.
Fleshy and large-mouthed. Favia keeps its corallites separate; acans run them together into a mound. The open brain on the sand is a Trachyphyllia.
Illustration. Polyps packed tight with no gaps between them, each with a visible central mouth.
Thick fleshy polyps packed side by side, each with a visible central mouth and concentric rings of color running out from it. The flesh is meaty enough that the skeleton disappears entirely when the coral is inflated. Acans take food readily and grow faster when fed, which is unusual enough among LPS to be worth exploiting.
Illustration. One mouth per polyp with rings of color running out from it, and no skeleton showing between neighbors.
PAR 50–100 · Flow low to moderate · Placement lower third or sand · Feeding recommended · Aggression low to moderate
Illustration. Compared with an acan, echinata polyps sit further apart and the valleys between them run deeper.
Larger, more separated corallites than an acan, with deeper valleys between them and a rougher skeletal texture under the flesh. Sold as the same thing often enough that the two names have blurred in the trade, but echinata polyps sit further apart and the coral tolerates a little more light.
Illustration. The rough, ridged skeleton visible down in the valley is what separates acanthastrea from the tighter packing of an acan.
PAR 75–150 · Flow low to moderate · Placement lower to middle · Feeding recommended · Aggression moderate
Homophyllia australis and corals sold under related trade names
Educational illustration. A solitary scoly shows a continuous fleshy mantle and an irregular oval outline.
The familiar Australian scoly is usually a solitary fleshy polyp with a rounded or oval outline. This illustration shows one central mouth and radial tissue folds. Inflation changes its profile, and mouth count alone is not a reliable way to exclude every lookalike. A trade grade such as master does not certify identity or lineage.
Low light and low flow. A scoly blasted with either will stay deflated and eventually recede at the edge of the skeleton.
Educational illustration. Radial tissue folds surround the mouth; the visible pattern and mouth count are only part of identification.
PAR 50–100 · Flow low · Placement sand bed or low rock · Feeding recommended · Aggression low
Illustration. Where a scoly is opaque and fleshy, a cynarina inflates into translucent lobes you can partly see through.
Also one large polyp, but where a scoly is fleshy and opaque, a cynarina inflates into translucent bubbled lobes you can partly see through, with the skeletal septa visible underneath as radiating ridges. Deflated during the day, much larger at night.
Illustration. The skeletal septa showing through from underneath are the tell. On a scoly the flesh is too opaque to see them this clearly.
PAR 50–100 · Flow low · Placement sand bed · Feeding recommended · Aggression low
Illustration. Each favia corallite keeps its own wall, so a narrow groove runs between every pair of neighbors.
Both are encrusting brain corals with rounded corallites packed across a dome. The difference is structural: favia corallites each have their own separate wall, so there is a visible groove between neighbors. Favites corallites share walls, so the pattern reads as a continuous honeycomb with no gap. Look at where two polyps meet.
Both send out sweeper tentacles at night that will burn a neighbor several inches away. Judge spacing by what happens after lights out, not by what the coral looks like at noon.
Illustration. Favites corallites share walls, so the surface reads as one continuous honeycomb. Look at where two polyps meet.
PAR 75–150 · Flow moderate · Placement lower to middle · Feeding beneficial · Aggression high at night
Illustration. A plating sheet with raised mouths scattered across it, each ringed in a contrasting color.
A plating or encrusting sheet with scattered raised mouths across the surface, usually ringed in a contrasting color. Chalice covers several genera that the trade treats as one, and the eye-catching ones command real money for patterns that only appear under blue light.
They carry some of the longest sweepers in the hobby, reaching six inches or more. A chalice placed politely between two other corals will eventually clear the space around it.
Illustration. The raised, brightly ringed mouths are what collectors pay for, and most of that color only appears under blue light.
PAR 50–100 · Flow low to moderate · Placement lower to middle, shaded · Feeding beneficial · Aggression very high, long sweepers
Educational illustration. Thick fleshy rims surround broad oral discs in a compact Blastomussa colony.
Expanded Blastomussa polyps have broad oral discs and thick fleshy rims. Their separate corallites may be difficult to see when neighboring polyps swell and overlap. Do not depend on exposed gaps or bare tubes as a universal test, and do not identify a species from apparent polyp size alone.
Educational illustration. A narrow gap is visible here, but expanded polyps can overlap and hide their skeletal separation.
PAR 50–100 · Flow low · Placement lower third · Feeding beneficial · Aggression low
Illustration. The vesicles inflate through the day and deflate at night to expose the feeding tentacles underneath.
Grape-sized vesicles inflate during the day and deflate at night to expose feeding tentacles underneath. Those vesicles are delicate and tear on rock or a careless net. The sweepers that come out after dark are long and they sting hard.
Illustration. Each vesicle is a thin, water-filled sac. That is why a net or a rock edge opens them.
PAR 50–100 · Flow low · Placement sand or low rock · Feeding recommended · Aggression high, long sweepers
Educational illustration. Thick inflated ridges surround irregular oral valleys in a fleshy Lobophyllia colony.
Lobophyllia forms large fleshy lobes and oral valleys over a stony skeleton. Some valleys are short and others are elongated; the visible folds change as tissue expands. Colony architecture and skeletal characters matter more than color or an assumed one-mouth-per-lobe rule.
Educational illustration. Broad folds and varied valley shapes show why a lobe is not always a simple isolated circle.
PAR 75–150 · Flow low to moderate · Placement lower to middle · Feeding recommended · Aggression moderate
Educational illustration. A low plate coral rests on substrate with living tissue and short tentacles covering its disc.
Plate corals include several genera and growth forms. The illustrated short-tentacle form is a low free-living disc with a central mouth and radial ridges beneath living tissue. Identify the living upper surface without turning the animal over. Underside skeletal ridges are costae, not the upper septa, and neither is a unique mushroom-gill test.
Keep them on sand, not rock. A plate wedged on rockwork tears its tissue on the edges.
Educational illustration of the living upper surface. Radial ridges and short tentacles surround the mouth; this is not an underside view.
PAR 75–150 · Flow low to moderate · Placement sand bed only · Feeding recommended · Aggression low
Educational illustration. Expanded Duncan polyps show broad oral discs and substantial tapered tentacles above a branching base.
Large fleshy polyps expand above a branching stony base. Each broad oral disc is surrounded by tapered tentacles that change their extension with conditions. Expanded tissue can conceal much of the branching structure; a short, blunt fringe is not a reliable identification rule.
Educational illustration. A closer view shows the oral disc, small mouth, and naturally curved, tapered tentacles.
PAR 50–120 · Flow low to moderate · Placement lower to middle · Feeding recommended · Aggression low
Educational illustration. A rounded Alveopora colony extends a bouquet of small flower-like polyps.
Alveopora polyps extend from a stony colony and have twelve tentacles, compared with twenty-four in Goniopora. Count a fully expanded, clearly visible polyp and compare the whole colony; overlap, blur, and retraction can make a photograph misleading. This illustration introduces the appearance without asserting a particular species.
Educational illustration. The foreground polyp shows twelve separate tentacles around its oral disc.
These views supplement the identification guide. Match care and placement to the confirmed specimen and its existing conditions.
Acanthophyllia
Acanthophyllia
Educational illustration. A single Acanthophyllia polyp has a broad oral field and large supple mantle folds.
Acanthophyllia is a solitary large fleshy polyp with a broad oral area and substantial mantle folds. Its continuous fleshy mantle differs from the multiple corallites in an Acanthastrea colony. Inflation, color, and trade names vary, so compare several features before identifying a specimen. Before you buy one, read what to check when buying Acanthophyllia online.
Educational illustration. Continuous fleshy tissue surrounds one visible mouth in this close view.
These views supplement the identification guide. Match care and placement to the confirmed specimen and its existing conditions.
Small polyp stony corals
Pavona is the one people walk past. It plates and folds like a lettuce leaf instead of branching, and it tolerates a newer tank better than most small polyp stony corals will.
Tiny polyps on a hard skeleton. Growth form does the work here: branching, plating or encrusting.
SPS is where stability stops being advice and starts being the whole job. These corals hold color and grow when alkalinity, calcium, and temperature sit still, and they brown out or lose tissue when those numbers move. The swing matters more than the value.
Acropora
Acropora spp.
Illustration. The pale tip on each branch is the axial corallite. No other genus has one.
Branching, with one identifying feature no other genus has: an axial corallite at the tip of each branch, larger than the radial corallites along the sides. That single tip corallite is what makes an acro an acro. The pale growing tip you see on a healthy piece is that structure laying down new skeleton.
The most demanding coral most people will keep, and the one that punishes swings hardest. Rapid tissue necrosis can strip a colony in a day.
Illustration. The single larger corallite at the branch tip is the axial corallite. No other genus has one.
PAR 250–400 · Flow strong and random · Placement upper third · Feeding optional · Aggression low, but sensitive to neighbors
Illustration. No axial corallite, a fine fuzzy polyp texture, and a pale growing rim.
No axial corallite, and the polyps are tiny and densely packed, giving the surface a fine fuzzy texture rather than the knobbly one an acro has. Grows in three forms sold under separate names: plating (capricornis), encrusting, and branching (digitata). All three are the same genus with the same needs.
The forgiving end of SPS. A montipora will tolerate parameter movement that would kill an acropora, which makes it the right first step.
Illustration. Tiny polyps packed dense across the surface and no axial corallite anywhere. That fine fuzz is how a monti reads next to an acro.
PAR 150–300 · Flow moderate to strong · Placement middle to upper · Feeding optional · Aggression low
Illustration. Thin, brittle branches tapering to needle points and tangling into a dense ball.
Thin, brittle, needle-tipped branches forming a dense tangle. Snaps easily, which is a feature when you want frags and a nuisance when you are moving rock. Grows fast in stable water.
Illustration. The needle tips are the tell, and they are also why the coral snaps in your hand when you move rock.
PAR 150–250 · Flow moderate to strong · Placement middle to upper · Feeding optional · Aggression low
Stylophora branch tips are blunt and rounded. That tip shape is the fastest way to separate it from Pocillopora and Seriatopora.
Blunt, thick branches with a rounded tip — the tip is the tell. Pocillopora tapers to a point and carries wart-like verrucae along the branch; Seriatopora tapers to a needle fine enough to snap between your fingers. If the branch ends look like fingers rather than spikes, it is Stylophora. It colors up under strong light and grows fast enough to frag inside a few months, which makes it one of the better SPS to learn on before spending money on Acropora.
PAR 200–350 · Flow moderate to strong · Placement middle to upper · Feeding optional · Aggression low
Educational illustration. Living pink-brown tissue and small green polyps cover an irregular branching Pocillopora colony.
Small polyps extend from living tissue covering a branching colony. Irregular wart-like outgrowths, called verrucae, can help identify Pocillopora, but their prominence and the shape of the branches vary. A simple blunt-versus-pointed branch comparison is not enough for a confident species identification.
Educational illustration. A close view shows tissue-covered outgrowths and small extended polyps; branch shape varies within the genus.
PAR 150–300 · Flow strong · Placement middle to upper · Feeding optional · Aggression low
Educational illustration of a Tropicana-type Anacropora with orange living tissue and small green polyps.
Slender branches carry small lateral corallites without the conspicuously enlarged axial corallite seen on many Acropora tips. The illustrated Tropicana-type coloration is orange with green polyps, but color and trade names do not establish identity or lineage. Branch form and side corallites are more useful clues.
Educational illustration. Small side corallites sit behind a gently rounded tip without an enlarged axial cup.
PAR 150–250 · Flow moderate to strong · Placement middle to upper · Feeding optional · Aggression low
The genus is named for its hydnophores — the small cone-shaped mounds sitting between the polyp mouths.
The surface is covered in hydnophores, small cone-shaped mounds that sit between the polyp mouths and give the coral a bumpy rather than grooved texture. That is the feature people miss when they confuse it with the maze brains. It encrusts and branches fast, and it stings hard: a Hydnophora will burn anything it grows into, so give it a rock of its own and check the gap every few weeks as it spreads.
PAR 150–250 · Flow moderate to strong · Placement middle · Feeding beneficial · Aggression very high
Illustration. Encrusting is a growth habit, not a genus. The coral spreads as a sheet over rock instead of branching or plating.
A growth habit rather than a genus. Encrusting pieces spread as a sheet directly over rock instead of branching or plating, and several genera do it. They are the cheapest way to cover bare aquascape, and once established they hold territory against neighbors.
Illustration. The pale advancing margin is where the coral is taking new ground. Once established, encrusting pieces hold territory.
PAR varies by genus · Flow moderate · Placement on rock, any height · Feeding optional · Aggression low to moderate
Leptastrea corallites sit nearly flush with the crust. Cyphastrea corallites stand proud as raised bumps — that is the separation.
Small, tightly packed corallites on a low encrusting crust, each polyp in its own shallow cup. It gets mistaken for Cyphastrea constantly; the difference is that Leptastrea corallites sit nearly flush with the surface while Cyphastrea corallites stand up as raised bumps you can feel. It is one of the toughest stonies in the hobby, tolerant of a wide PAR range, and a sensible first encruster for someone who has killed an Acropora and wants a win.
PAR 75–200 · Flow low to moderate · Placement lower to middle · Feeding optional · Aggression low
Turbinaria grows as a cup, scroll or plate with large polyps that stand well off the surface.
Grows as a scroll, a vase or a shallow cup, with large widely spaced polyps that extend well off the surface. Two forms turn up in the hobby: the scroll and vase types that curl upward, and the pagoda cups that settle into a bowl. It is unusually tolerant of low light and nutrient-rich water, which makes it one of the few stony corals that will do well in a tank still finding its footing. Keep detritus from collecting in the cup.
PAR 50–150 · Flow low to moderate · Placement lower to middle · Feeding beneficial · Aggression low
Illustration. A thick rubbery trunk supporting a wide capitulum, with polyps standing out across the top. No stony skeleton anywhere in it.
No stony skeleton. A thick rubbery trunk supporting a capitulum with polyps across the surface, which retract into the flesh and leave the coral looking deflated for days at a time. That shrinking is normal and usually precedes shedding a waxy surface layer, not dying.
Leathers release terpenes that suppress nearby stony corals. In a small tank that chemistry is a real constraint, and carbon helps.
Illustration. A leather that shrinks and goes waxy for days is usually shedding, not dying. This is the state people panic about.
PAR 75–150 · Flow moderate to strong · Placement middle to upper · Feeding optional · Aggression chemical, not physical
Illustration. Each polyp rises on its own tube from a shared mat across the rock.
Eight feathery tentacles per polyp, each rising from its own tube off a shared mat. The eight-tentacle count separates clove polyps from zoanthids, which have many more and a flat disc.
Some varieties spread across rockwork and do not stop. Put them on an island rock separated by sand unless you are prepared to remove them later.
Illustration. Eight feathery tentacles, every time. A zoanthid has many more and a flat disc, and that count is the fastest way to tell them apart.
Flat discs with concentric rings, joined by a mat rather than a skeleton. Palys run bigger, zoas run smaller and tighter.
Zoanthids
Zoanthus spp.
Illustration. Flat round discs with a fringe of short tentacles, joined by a mat.
Flat round oral discs on short stalks, joined by a mat, with a fringe of short tentacles around the rim. Colors come in named morphs that sell for wildly different money based on pattern alone. Hardy, fast, and the right first coral for most people.
Closed zoas tell you something only if you read the pattern. All shut at once points at a whole-tank event. A few open beside closed neighbors points at predation.
Illustration. A flat round disc with a short tentacle fringe around the rim, on a stalk joined to a mat. Many tentacles, not eight.
Illustration. Larger polyps than a zoanthid, on thicker, fleshier stalks.
Larger polyps than zoanthids, with a thicker fleshier stalk and often a sandy texture from grit embedded in the tissue. The distinction matters for one reason.
Palytoxin
Palythoa can carry palytoxin, which is genuinely dangerous. Do not boil rock with polyps on it, do not scrape colonies in a closed room, and wear gloves and eye protection when handling or fragging. The zoanthid guide covers this properly, and it is worth reading before you cut anything.
Illustration. Grit embedded in the stalk tissue gives palythoa its sandy texture. Wear gloves and eye protection before you cut one.
PAR 75–150 · Flow moderate · Placement anywhere · Feeding optional · Aggression low, but handle with care
Smooth disc, hairy bumps, or round bubble tips. That is the whole family sorted at a glance.
Discosoma, Rhodactis and Ricordea
Illustration. Discosoma are smooth and flat with no bumps at all. That flatness is the whole difference from the other two.
Three mushrooms sold as one category, separated by surface texture. Discosoma are smooth and flat with no visible bumps. Rhodactis carry branched, sometimes hairy outgrowths across the disc. Ricordea are covered in dense round bobbles, evenly spaced, like beading.
All three want the lowest light and the least flow in the tank. A mushroom that detaches and travels is telling you the spot is too bright or too strong.
Educational illustration. Rounded vesicles vary in size around a low mouth; a raised cone is not a dependable species test.
Anemones are a separate commitment from coral: they move, they can wander into a powerhead, and a bubble tip wants an established tank rather than a new one. The rock flower anemones we collect here in the Keys stay put far better and sit on the sand instead of climbing the rock.
What grows on a Keys patch reef. Several of these we culture ourselves under FL Aquaculture Certificate #AQ0254072.
We are licensed to collect and sell Florida marine life, which puts animals on our list that most coral retailers cannot offer at all. What follows comes out of the water we work in rather than off a pallet at an airport.
One thing worth stating plainly, because it gets muddled constantly: Florida protects its stony corals, and they cannot be taken from the wild. Our stony corals are either aquacultured at the shop in Key West under Florida Aquaculture Certificate #AQ0254072 or conditioned in our Key West systems before they ship. What comes out of local water is the rest of the reef — ricordea, octocorals, macroalgae, inverts and fish — collected under license and inside state limits. Anyone selling you a wild-caught Florida acropora is selling you a story.
Ricordea florida
Ricordea florida
Educational illustration. A low fleshy Ricordea florida disc carries rounded vesicles around a visible mouth.
This Atlantic corallimorph has a broad, low fleshy disc covered with rounded vesicles. The visible mouth and surrounding texture vary with expansion. Mouth height alone does not distinguish Ricordea florida from Ricordea yuma; use several features and a reliable reference rather than a cone-shaped-mouth rule.
They divide by splitting rather than by dropping babies off the foot, so a settled piece slowly becomes two of itself. Give them the same treatment as any other mushroom: the shaded end of the tank and the softest flow you have. A ricordea that keeps detaching and traveling is telling you the spot is too bright.
Sea fans, sea plumes and sea whips · various octocoral genera
Illustration. Photosynthetic on the left, non-photosynthetic on the right. If the color is vivid and there is no brown or olive anywhere in it, assume it has to be fed.
This group splits into two halves that need opposite things, and buying the wrong half by accident is the most common way a gorgonian dies in a home tank.
Photosynthetic species — the purple, tan and olive plumes and whips — carry zooxanthellae and live on light plus water movement, the same as any other coral in this guide. They are forgiving and they grow.
Non-photosynthetic species — the bright oranges, reds and yellows that catch your eye first — have no symbiotic algae at all. They eat, and only that. Without frequent feeding of small suspended food they starve slowly over weeks while still looking fine, then strip from the base up. If the color is vivid and there is no brown or olive in it anywhere, assume it needs feeding until you have confirmed otherwise.
Either way, mount them upright and off the sand. A gorgonian lying against rock or substrate abrades in that spot and loses tissue there first.
PAR 100–200 (photosynthetic) · Flow strong and random · Placement upright, off the sand · Feeding required for non-photosynthetic · Aggression low
An Indo-Pacific coral leaves the reef, sits in a holding facility, flies for a day or more, clears customs, and passes through at least one wholesaler before anyone ships it to your door. Every one of those transfers is a chance to be bagged too long, run too hot or too cold, or held without food.
An animal collected here goes from local water into our system and stays in it until the day it ships to you. That is one transfer instead of five, and it is the reason we can tell you how a specific piece has been behaving rather than reading you a description off a wholesaler’s list.
Shop Florida Keys corals · Local inverts · Macroalgae · Reef restoration in the Keys
The care chart
Every coral above in one place. Sort your own priorities: if you have a low-light tank, read down the PAR column first.
Coral
Type
PAR
Flow
Placement
Feeding
Aggression
Torch
LPS
75–150
Moderate
Low–mid
Beneficial
High
Hammer
LPS
75–150
Moderate
Low–mid
Beneficial
High
Frogspawn
LPS
75–150
Moderate
Low–mid
Beneficial
High
Acan
LPS
50–100
Low–mod
Low / sand
Recommended
Low–mod
Acanthastrea
LPS
75–150
Low–mod
Low–mid
Recommended
Moderate
Scolymia
LPS
50–100
Low
Sand
Recommended
Low
Cynarina
LPS
50–100
Low
Sand
Recommended
Low
Favia
LPS
75–150
Moderate
Low–mid
Beneficial
High at night
Favites
LPS
75–150
Moderate
Low–mid
Beneficial
High at night
Chalice
LPS
50–100
Low–mod
Low–mid
Beneficial
Very high
Blastomussa
LPS
50–100
Low
Low
Beneficial
Low
Bubble
LPS
50–100
Low
Sand / low
Recommended
High
Lobophyllia
LPS
75–150
Low–mod
Low–mid
Recommended
Moderate
Plate (Fungia)
LPS
75–150
Low–mod
Sand only
Recommended
Low
Duncan
LPS
50–120
Low–mod
Low–mid
Recommended
Low
Acropora
SPS
250–400
Strong
Upper
Optional
Low
Montipora
SPS
150–300
Mod–strong
Mid–upper
Optional
Low
Birdsnest
SPS
150–250
Mod–strong
Mid–upper
Optional
Low
Pocillopora
SPS
150–300
Strong
Mid–upper
Optional
Low
Anacropora
SPS
150–250
Mod–strong
Mid–upper
Optional
Low
Leather
Soft
75–150
Mod–strong
Mid–upper
Optional
Chemical
Clove polyps
Soft
75–150
Moderate
Isolated
Optional
Spreads
Zoanthid
Soft
75–150
Moderate
Anywhere
Optional
Low
Palythoa
Soft
75–150
Moderate
Anywhere
Optional
Handle with care
Mushrooms
Soft
30–75
Low
Low, shaded
Optional
Low
Ricordea florida
Soft
30–75
Low
Low, shaded
Optional
Low
Gorgonian (photo)
Soft
100–200
Strong
Upright, off sand
Optional
Low
Gorgonian (non-photo)
Soft
Not required
Strong
Upright, off sand
Required
Low
Corals people confuse
Pair
What separates them
Torch vs hammer vs frogspawn
Tentacle tip: rounded and bulbous, flat anvil, or split into knobs.
Favia vs favites
Favia corallites have separate walls with a groove between. Favites share walls, so the pattern is a continuous honeycomb.
Acropora vs montipora
Acropora has an axial corallite at each branch tip. Montipora has none, and a fine fuzzy surface.
Acropora vs anacropora
Same look, but anacropora has no axial corallite.
Acan vs acanthastrea
Acan polyps pack tight with no gaps. Acanthastrea corallites sit further apart with deeper valleys.
Scolymia vs cynarina
Scoly flesh is opaque and cushioned. Cynarina inflates into translucent lobes with visible septa underneath.
Discosoma vs rhodactis vs ricordea
Smooth disc, branched outgrowths, or dense round bobbles.
Zoanthid vs palythoa
Palythoa polyps are larger, fleshier, often gritty in texture. Palytoxin risk is higher.
Zoanthid vs clove polyp
Count tentacles. Clove polyps have eight feathery ones. Zoanthids have many more around a flat disc.
Birdsnest vs pocillopora
Birdsnest branches are thin with needle tips. Pocillopora is stubbier and covered in wart-like verrucae.
Written by The Underwater Gardener, Key West, Florida. Florida Aquaculture Certificate #AQ0254072, licensed Florida marine life dealer. The husbandry here comes from growing and shipping these animals, not from a textbook. Corals ship UPS Next Day Air with a live arrival guarantee.
Read next
Three guides that pick up where this one leaves off.
Photographed in Key West, in stock today. The $10 Box & Handling Fee is charged per box, not per coral, and UPS Next Day Air is one flat shipping charge per order — a box typically holds around five small frags. Browse corals under $100 or beginner corals to fill one.
Have a coral you want to keep track of? Start with a photo, explore possible AI matches when available, and keep its observations together in a Coral Passport.
GUIDEThe Beginner Coral GuideThe corals worth starting with, and the honest reasons they forgive mistakes.Read guide 
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