False Knob Coral

About

False Knob Coral (Favites magnistellata) is a colonial stony coral found across a broad sweep of the Indo-West Pacific, from Japan down to Australia and from the coast of Mozambique east to Fiji. In the wild it occupies reef environments from the shallows all the way down to around 40 meters, which gives you a sense of just how adaptable this species is to varying light conditions. Like other members of the Favites group, it forms a sessile, encrusting to massive colony made up of tightly packed corallites. The individual cup-shaped skeletal units that give brain and phaceloid corals their textured, almost geometric appearance. The "false knob" name hints at a resemblance to Knob Corals in overall structure, though closer inspection of the corallite walls and septa sets it apart. In reef aquariums it falls into the intermediate care bracket. Not the most demanding large-polyp stony coral you could pick, but it does expect stable water quality and consistent husbandry. Moderate lighting and moderate flow suit it well, and it appreciates enough space that neighboring corals cannot reach it, since Favites species are known to extend sweeper tentacles after dark to defend their territory.