Coral of the Month November: Favia

[aquaman3680]

This months coral is Favias. These are very interesting looking corals and come in many different colors and varieties. Favias are part of the very large family of brain corals. These corals are commonly called Moon Coral, Green Moon Coral, Pineapple Coral, Brain Coral, and Star Coral.

Hardiness: These corals are generally considered easy to keep.

Water flow: They like a gentle current going across them.

Feeding: Favias can be fed and benefit from it just like any other brain or LPS.

Lighting: They prefer high light but will tolerate lower light like Power Compacts.

Aggressiveness: They can and will send out small transparent sweeper tentacles at night. They are considered moderately aggressive. A 2" border around them should keep any coral safe.

Placement: Depending on lighting conditions they can be place mid tank with low flow.

Here are a few pictures of them:

Feel free to offer insight to keeping these corals/discuss/add pictures/ask questions!

Enjoy!

Matt

 

[vdituri]

Thanks Matt!

Are Favias an encrusting type of coral?
And does one need to feed each mouth to benefit the entire colony?

 

[dobejazz]

Here is mine - he loves shade
I do have a question though he has grown on to the live rock on both sides and due to a tank transfer I need to move it. Should I cut the growth off, or just try to pull it off the rocks?

 

[goldenmean]

I'd like the discussion to also talk about the differences and similarities between favia and favites.
I just got a favites if you hadn't guessed.
I believe that I have read that favia have seperate coralite walls while Favites have shared walls. If this is true - is dobejazz's coral in the pic above a favites?

 

[framerguy]

The favites and favia are very similar. You are correct in the descriptions Goldenmean, favia have distinct separations beween corallites where favites share corallite walls. Kelli's does seem to be a favites.
I've found some interesting things about them, I've been looking into getting one. These facts seem to apply to favia, favites, and platygyra (platys have maze like corallite walls).

They are a backwater/lagoon corals and can live where no other corals do or will, because of their adaptability to less than ideal water conditions. In fact the water in our tanks is usually much better than where they come from. This trait makes them the perfect candidate for the newbie.

They are found in waters 25-30' deep and are not accustomed to intense lighting. The color can tell you the depth they came from. Highly colored, bright green specimens come from shallower water and will withstand brighter lighting. Muted greens and pastel colors come from deeper water and will not enjoy bright light. They can become accustomed to the light in time by shade screens, removing a layer per week for a few weeks.

They host zooanthellia but will also need feeding of meaty foods. Feed at night for best results. Use krill or siversides but give the entire "sacrificial lamb" to the coral as each part of the morsal has dietary benefits. Cut them up into bitesize pieces but feed the entire organism to the coral. Place it in the sweeper tentacles, which pack a potent sting so be aware, and for this reason, leave plenty of room between neighbors.

They prefer calcium ranges from 420-480, 450 being optimal. Dkh above 7 is necessary and even seem to thrive much better as high as Dkh15.

Place in moderate flow to help remove detritus buildup.

Victor, I don't believe they are encrusting but multiply and grow into a "bigger ball". I do believe that each head feeds the entire animal. Their kind of like the Borg like that! Someone with much more knowledge about them may dispute that. Again, this is just research I've done proir to getting one, it's all booklearnin'. There, now you know as much as I do!

 

[vdituri]

Thanks for the Borg analogy. That helps alot. ROTFLMAO!
Way to know your target audience.

Great info. Makes me less hesitant to try one.

 

[framerguy]

Way to know your target audience.

I had a feelin', ya know...

 

[Frankie]

Cool! i have one. I'll post a picture tomorrow. I look forward to this topic. Great info so far people.

 

[mps9506]

Here's my favia, also my current avatar

 

[kathywithbirds]

I like these, LOVE the color on Golden's. Could you define what a coralline wall is? Is it like a cell wall?

 

[Triggerjay]

Cool! I think I have one too.. I will post some pics when I get a chance.

Jason

 

[mps9506]

I like these, LOVE the color on Golden's. Could you define what a coralline wall is? Is it like a cell wall?

The corallite wall is, if you look at the coral I posted. The brown wall around the green "mouth." In the piece I posted each polyp has it's own wall. That generally equals favia. Favites on the other hand have polyps that share a common wall.
If you take a look at dobe's peice it is representative of that.

The term corallite actually refers to the calcium structure each polyp builds.
So in a favia a cross section would look something like this (I hope it posts correctly):

|wall|mouth|wall||wall|mouth|wall||wall|mouth|wall|

While a favites is:
|wall|mouth|wall|mouth|wall|mouth|wall|

I don't know if that made any sense...

 

[kathywithbirds]

Gotcha!! Thanks!

 

[goldenmean]

here is my favites and you can more clearly see the shared wall corallite

In these pics I had just added the coral to my tank. You can see that some of the coralite is slightly bleached. Under my lights after just a week and a half I can notice that the coralite is darkening back up

 

[framerguy]

Goldenmean, I don't want to sound like a knowitall because I am FAR from it, but I think your coral is a Platygyra sp. It seems to have more of a meandering corallite wall, in the photos I've seen the favites walls are more structured and uniform. It's probable I'm wrong, but see what you think.

 

[goldenmean]

Thanks Greg for the info.
I really appreciate it and no, you did not come across as a know it all.
I had wondered about that.
My LFS said it was a favites but most of the favites I had seen online did not quite look like mine. I will do some more research on Platygyra.

Greg, I think you are right.
The faviid family is large and there a subtle differences among the genius.
From Wet Web media. Faviidae. Check out all 3 parts.

This is why RS and this COTM thread is special.
On other sites the members would all be flaming each other for misnaming their corals. RS is so polite and helpful!

 

[mps9506]

Thanks Greg for the info.
I really appreciate it and no, you did not come across as a know it all.
I had wondered about that.
My LFS said it was a favites but most of the favites I had seen online did not quite look like mine. I will do some more research on Platygyra.

I would tend to agree on the id. ID'ing even to the genus level in this family can be quite confusing since you will see variations in growth pattern depending on environmental conditions.
Regardless, never trust the LFS id of corals chances are they are using the wholesalers ID, and there are still a lot of wholesellers that rely on common names to describe corals when selling to retailers. some places are really good about id'ing corals when they come in, other places just label what the wholesaller labeled it and mark the price up.

As far as coloring up, they do seem to color up quite quickly, either for better or worse in captivity.
You can see the color difference in mine from the week I got it until a few months after I had it:

It lost all the white stripes which is why I originally purchased it

 

[aquaman3680]

Wonderful looking corals everyone! I personally dont know a whole lot about these corals. The only one I have is the first one pictured, and I know that one is encrusting. I have often thought about getting some more!

Matt

 

[Octoman]

Here's my TBS hitchhiker. I never have figured out what he is, but maybe he can hang out with the Favias...

 

[hma]

Hi Mark,

looks like a Montipora digitata for me ...

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