Anemone Coral

About

Anemone coral (Goniopora polyformis) is one of those corals that stops people in their tracks at the fish store. Those long, extended polyps swaying in the current genuinely do look more like a sea anemone than a stony coral. The colonies grow in an encrusting form with irregular, contorted upward projections, and the corallites themselves have thin walls with well-developed, evenly arranged septa. Coloration tends to be modest: brown or grey bases set off by white oral cones at the tips of the polyps. In the wild, this species comes from shallow reef environments in the Western Pacific, with populations known from Japan and Indonesia, where it experiences bright light and steady water movement. Goniopora as a genus has a reputation for being tricky in captivity, and this species is no exception. It falls into the intermediate care bracket, which really means it is better suited to someone who already has a stable, established reef system running well. High-intensity lighting and moderate flow are the keys to keeping polyps extended and the colony growing. It is reef safe and not known to cause problems with neighbors, but placement and consistency matter more here than with more forgiving coral choices.