Favites: Moon Coral (WYSIWYG)

I have yet to do a "what you see, is what you get" type of livestock availability list on my blog, but some day I may. I was speaking to a client last week about an available space in her aquarium and she was thinking about a trachyphylliidae, open brain coral. I happened to have a very healthy moon coral, commonly called a closed brain coral, in stock for the past couple of weeks and with an email and a copy of these of photos, the piece was sold.

Moon corals, of the favite family, are some of the most common corals in the world. They are typically massive, domed or rounded shaped. Favites are often hardy corals and very well suited for captive care in a reef aquarium, tolerating a wide variety of lighting and flow conditions. Feeding tentacles emerge at night, the flesh typically remains expanded during the day, as in the photo above.

This coral is about 4 inches in diameter and 2 inches in height.