Larger Star Coral

About

Larger Star Coral (Favites chinensis) is a reef-building species distributed broadly across the Indo-West Pacific, turning up across a wide depth range from shallow reef flats down to around 40 meters. In the wild it adapts to many different reef environments, which hints at the resilience that makes it a reasonable choice for intermediate reef keepers. Colonies grow into rounded, boulder-like masses that can become quite substantial over time. Up close, the surface has a distinctive angular geometry. The individual corallites are shallow and polygonal, separated by thin walls, and the septa running through adjacent corallites line up neatly across those shared walls, creating a tidy, almost tessellated look. There are no paliform lobes to interrupt that clean pattern. Coloration is generally on the quieter side: most specimens come in yellow or greenish-brown tones rather than vivid hues. In the aquarium, Favites chinensis appreciates moderate light and moderate flow. Conditions that reflect its ability to thrive across varied depths in the wild. It is considered reef safe, but like most LPS corals it will extend sweeper tentacles at night, so give it reasonable spacing from neighbors. Not the flashiest coral on the shelf, but a solid, characterful addition to a mixed reef.