Staghorn Coral

About

Found on upper reef slopes and flats across the Indo-Pacific, Acropora globiceps is a digitate coral that grows in tight, stubby colonies shaped heavily by its environment. In calmer conditions the branches stay short and rounded, with characteristic dome-shaped tips packed closely together. Where wave action is more intense, the branchlets can take on a more pyramid-like profile, giving colonies from different microhabitats a noticeably different look even within the same species. Colonies tend to stay small overall, which makes them somewhat distinctive among acroporids. Coloration runs toward uniform blue, which can read as purple in photographs, or cream, without much variation in between. Corallites are irregular in size depending on whether the colony formed on a slope or a flat, shifting from more tubular to more immersed respectively, and the axial corallites are small enough that they can be difficult to pick out at all. In the aquarium this is firmly a species for experienced reef keepers. Like most Acropora it demands very high light and vigorous, consistent flow to thrive, and is less forgiving of swings in water quality than hardier coral genera. Its natural depth range sits fairly shallow, so replicating those high-energy, well-lit conditions is essential rather than optional.