Crust Coral

About

Crust coral (Leptastrea purpurea) is one of those species that quietly earns respect the more you learn about it. Found across an enormous stretch of the Indo-Pacific, from Japan down to South Africa, and from the Red Sea all the way out to Easter Island, it occupies one of the broadest geographic ranges of any reef coral, turning up in everything from shallow reef flats to depths pushing 85 meters. That kind of adaptability tells you something about its constitution. In the aquarium, it grows as a flat, encrusting sheet, its surface covered in neat, angular corallites arranged in a closely packed, cerioid pattern. Corallite size can vary noticeably within a single colony, which gives the surface a pleasingly irregular texture rather than a stamped-out look. Coloration tends toward soft, understated tones. Pale yellows, creams, and muted greens on the upper surface, with darker pigmentation on the sides. The septa are tightly arranged and slope evenly down toward a small, compact columella at each corallite center. Care lands in the intermediate range. It appreciates solid light and moderate water movement, and while it is not the most demanding coral on the reef, it is not quite a beginner species either. A good choice once you have the fundamentals of reef keeping dialed in.