Wrinkle Coral

About

Wrinkle Coral (Coscinaraea crassa) is a solid, unassuming stony coral from the Indo-West Pacific, found across a broad tropical range from the Indian Ocean eastward into the Pacific. In the wild it grows in shallow reef environments down to around 40 meters, forming submassive to encrusting colonies that hug the substrate rather than reaching upward. Its defining feature is its large, tightly packed corallites with deeply set columellae and alternating septo-costae that create the pronounced textured, furrowed surface that gives the coral its common name. Coloration in the wild tends toward pale brown, so this is not a coral you're keeping for vivid color. Its appeal lies in its sculptural, architectural quality and the interesting surface relief it brings to a rockwork layout. In the aquarium it needs good lighting and moderate water movement to stay healthy, and falls into the intermediate care bracket, meaning it is best suited to keepers who already have a stable, well-established reef system running. It is reef safe and poses no particular threat to neighboring corals beyond physical contact, so give it reasonable space to spread and it should settle in reliably.