Size: upto 30 cm.

 

Key Features: Pale grey, green or brown, usually with calices of contrasting colours. Colonies are massive. Corallites are circular and closely compacted in shallow water, more widely spaced in deeper water. Septa are fine, numerous and regular. Paliform lobes are usually poorly developed.

 

Diet: Plankton, Zooxanthellae / Light

 

Habitat: This species occurs in all shallow, tropical reef environments. It is commonly found from 3-15 m, rarely from 1-2 m and 18-20 m, in the South China Sea and Gulf of Siam. It is found on subtidal rock and rocky reefs, in the outer reef channel, on the back and foreslope, and in lagoons to 40 m. It can be found on inter-reef rubble substrate.

 

Conservation status: Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

 

 

 

 

 

References:

IUCN Red List. http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/133210/0

 

Favia speciosa. In Australian Institute of Marine Science. Retrieved on June 18, 2014 from http://coral.aims.gov.au/factsheet.jsp?speciesCode=0158

 

Favia speciosa. In Reeflex , the Marine Aquarium Encyclopedia. Retrieved on June 18, 2014 from http://www.reeflex.net/tiere/1814_Favia_speciosa.htm

 

Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) Project, Second Interim Progress Report, GEER Foundation, June 2012

 

 

Photo Courtesy

Charlie Veron. Australian Institute of Marine  Science. Licensed under CC BY-NC 3.0 via Creative Commons