Chalice coral

Care at a glance

Chalice corals grow as a thin, dish-shaped plate over rock, with polyp eyes set into the surface like small craters. They are famous for their extreme colour combinations, in which fluorescent orange, green and purple can sit right next to one another.

They like subdued light and gentle flow and therefore do well in the shade of other corals. Do watch out: many chalices form long sweeper tentacles at night that reach surprisingly far, so give them more space than their size suggests.

Good to know

• Potent sting — keep distance in the tank

Related species

• Elegance coralCatalaphyllia jardinei
• Sun coralTubastraea sp.
• Black sun coralTubastraea micranthus
• Cynarina coralCynarina lacrymalis
• Scoly coralHomophyllia australis
• StylophoraStylophora pistillata