Potato Chip Coral

About

Potato chip coral (Pavona cactus) gets its common name honestly. The colonies grow as thin, contorted, upright fronds that twist and ruffle in ways that genuinely do call to mind a crinkled chip. Up close, the surface is covered with fine, shallow corallites arranged in loose rows that run roughly parallel to the edges of each frond. Coloration is typically a muted pale brown to greenish-brown, often with lighter, almost white margins along the frond edges. In the wild across the Indo-Pacific, this coral turns up in lagoons and on upper reef slopes, particularly in calmer, somewhat turbid water sheltered from strong wave action. It can form enormous colonies in those conditions, sometimes spreading well beyond what you'd expect. That tolerance for lower light and gentler flow translates well to the aquarium, making it one of the more forgiving large-polyp stony corals for newer reef keepers. It doesn't demand intense lighting or a high-flow powerhead pointed at it, which gives you some flexibility in placement. The main thing to plan for is space. Those fronds grow outward over time, and a healthy colony will eventually need room to expand without crowding neighbors.