The most beautiful corals for your reef aquarium, from beginner to expert

Soft corals, zoanthids, mushrooms, LPS and SPS: which corals are the most beautiful, which are easy, and what should you consider when placing them?

Colourful Zoanthus polyps under blue light
Photo: Inktomi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Corals are animals: colonies of tiny polyps living together with algae (zooxanthellae) in their tissue. Those algae turn light into food. How much light, flow and stability a coral needs varies greatly by group.

Easy: soft corals

Leather corals (Sarcophyton, Sinularia)

Leather coral (Sarcophyton glaucum)
Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Tough, fast-growing and tolerant of fluctuating parameters.

Xenia

Pulsing Xenia coral (Xenia umbellata)
Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

‘pulsing’ polyps that open and close. Beautiful, but can spread quickly.

Mushroom corals (Discosoma, Rhodactis)

Mushroom coral (Discosoma) in an aquarium
Photo: Josuevg, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Flat discs in red, blue and green. Need little light.

Easy: Zoanthus and Palythoa

Zoanthus polyps under actinic light
Photo: Robert Howie, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Small, colourful polyps that form whole carpets, in endless colour combinations. Caution: many Palythoa and some Zoanthus species contain palytoxin, a very potent toxin. Wear gloves and safety glasses when handling them, and never boil or scrape rocks with these polyps.

Intermediate: LPS corals

LPS (large polyp stony) corals are stony corals with large, fleshy polyps. They have a calcium skeleton and need stable calcium, KH and magnesium.

Euphyllia (hammer, torch and frogspawn)

Torch coral (Euphyllia glabrescens)
Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Flowing tentacles that clownfish love to host in. They grow long ‘sweeper tentacles’ that sting neighbours: give them space.

Duncanopsammia

Duncanopsammia axifuga (whisker coral)
Photo: Coro, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Green polyps with a purple disc, quickly grows into a beautiful colony.

Blastomussa

Blastomussa wellsi
Photo: Bondolo, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Fleshy, brightly coloured polyps that need little light.

Demanding: SPS corals

Acropora tenuis coral colony
Photo: MolaAcropora, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

SPS (small polyp stony) corals such as Acropora and Montipora have small polyps and grow into branching or plating colonies in vivid colours. They need a lot of light, strong flow and very stable water parameters. For those who already have experience.

Placement tips

  • Acclimatise corals to light slowly: place new corals lower down first and move them up after a few weeks.
  • Keep distance between corals that can sting each other.
  • Dip new corals in a coral dip against pests, following the instructions.
  • Choose aquacultured frags: they are used to aquarium conditions and don’t burden the reef.
  • Stony corals are CITES-listed: only buy from dealers who trade legally.