African Pillow Coral

About

African Pillow Coral (Siderastrea savignyana) is a sturdy, encrusting to dome-shaped coral found across a wide swath of the Indo-West Pacific, from Mozambique's coast all the way to the Philippines, Micronesia, and Fiji. In the wild it occupies shallow reef environments and sandy lagoons, often growing partially buried in sediment. A level of tolerance for turbid, low-visibility conditions that sets it apart from many other small-polyp stony corals. Colonies can grow into broad, low mounds nearly a metre across, though aquarium specimens are of course much more modest in scale. Up close, the surface has a neat, almost geometric quality: tiny polygonal corallites just a few millimetres wide, each ringed by finely arranged septa that radiate inward in tidy fan-like groups toward the central columella. Coloration tends toward pale tan overall, though many individuals show a two-tone pattern with darker polyp centers and bright white corallite walls, giving the colony a subtle, textured look. Care falls into the intermediate range. It appreciates solid water quality and consistent high lighting, along with moderate flow to keep detritus from settling on its surface. Its naturally sand-tolerant lifestyle suggests it is more forgiving of occasional turbidity than many SPS corals, but stable reef conditions will always get the best results.