Beginner💡 Medium🌊 Low
Fleshy polyps with hammer-shaped tips that sway in gentle current. Comes in green, gold, purple, and rainbow morphs. Long sweeper tentacles can sting nearby corals - leave at least 6 inches of clearance.
Free Coral Identification Guide
A coral identification guide is a reference chart that helps reef aquarium hobbyists identify coral species by appearance, type (LPS, SPS, soft), and care requirements. Browse, filter, and compare 30+ popular reef corals below.
Type
Difficulty
Lighting
Showing 32 of 32 corals
Intermediate💡 Medium🌊 Low
Long flowing tentacles tipped with bright bulbs - looks like a flame. Premium morphs (Aussie Gold Hammer, Indo Dragon Soul) command high prices. Sensitive to brown jelly disease, requires stable parameters.
Beginner💡 Medium🌊 Low
Branching colony with grape-like clustered tip polyps that look like frog eggs. One of the easiest Euphyllia for new reefers. Same long sweepers as hammer - keep distance from neighbors.
Beginner💡 Low🌊 Low
Encrusting colony with fleshy polyps in vivid red, green, orange, and rainbow patterns. Loves to be fed mysis or pellets directly. Will sting and overgrow nearby corals over time.
Intermediate💡 Medium🌊 Medium
Encrusting brain-like coral with neat polygonal corallites. Comes in war coral, jack-o-lantern, and christmas favia morphs. Extends long stinging tentacles at night - very aggressive in close quarters.
Beginner💡 Low🌊 Low
Free-living single-polyp coral that sits directly on the sand bed. Inflates dramatically with water during the day. Photosynthetic but appreciates target feeding 1-2 times per week.
Intermediate💡 Medium🌊 Low
Domed colony with thick ridged flesh resembling a folded brain. Hardy once acclimated. Slow grower but lives for decades. Feeds on small meaty foods.
Intermediate💡 Low🌊 Low
Inflates round grape-like vesicles during the day for photosynthesis, retracts to expose long stinging sweepers at night. Easily torn by strong flow or careless handling.
Beginner💡 Medium🌊 Medium
Branching colony with fluffy daisy-like polyps that constantly extend. Multiplies fast with target feeding. One of the most beginner-friendly LPS - hard to kill, easy to grow.
Beginner💡 Medium🌊 Medium
Branching colony of tubular corallites tipped with green or two-tone fluorescent polyps. Splits naturally as it grows, making frags simple. Tolerates a wide range of conditions.
Intermediate💡 Low🌊 Low
Encrusting plate-like colony with bright eye-shaped polyps in neon greens, oranges, and reds. Premium morphs (Bizarro, Mummy Eye) sell for hundreds per polyp. Long aggressive sweepers at night.
Advanced💡 Medium🌊 Medium
Bouquet of long-stalk polyps with 24 tentacles each. Historically considered nearly impossible to keep, but aquacultured Aussie and Indo strains are now hardy with stable nutrients and feeding.
Beginner💡 Low🌊 Low
Cluster of fleshy round polyps on individual stalks. Vivid red, green, and rainbow morphs. Likes shaded, low-flow placement and benefits from weekly target feeding.
Intermediate💡 Medium🌊 Low
Free-living disc that sits on sand and can slowly walk to a preferred spot. Long-tentacle Heliofungia looks like an anemone. Vulnerable to clownfish hosting damage.
Expert💡 High🌊 High
The crown jewel of reef SPS - branching, tabling, or staghorn growth in vivid blues, greens, and pinks. Demands ultra-stable parameters, low nutrients, strong PAR (200-400+), and turbulent flow.
Intermediate💡 High🌊 Medium
Branching SPS that looks like deer antlers. Forest, orange, purple, and pink morphs available. The easiest of the SPS - fast grower and forgiving of minor parameter swings.
Intermediate💡 High🌊 Medium
Plating or whorled growth in red, green, and rainbow strains. Forms beautiful overhangs once established. Sensitive to montipora-eating nudibranchs - dip new frags carefully.
Intermediate💡 High🌊 Medium
Stout branching SPS with rounded blunt tips that look like cat's paws. Pink, green, and milka morphs. Hardier than acropora and tolerates higher nutrients - a common gateway SPS.
Intermediate💡 High🌊 Medium
Bumpy branching SPS, often pink or brown. Sometimes hosts pocillopora crabs. Frequently sexually reproduces in the tank, sending out planula larvae that settle on rockwork.
Intermediate💡 High🌊 High
Delicate thin needle-like branches in pink, green, or ponape strains. Snaps easily - place where you won't bump it. Fast grower under proper lighting and flow.
Intermediate💡 High🌊 Medium
Cousin of birdsnest with thicker, less brittle branches. Same care needs but more forgiving of accidental bumps. Forms tight bushy colonies in good conditions.
Beginner💡 Medium🌊 Medium
Colonial polyps with vibrant disc-shaped tops in nearly every color combination. Fast spreaders. WARNING: many contain palytoxin - wear gloves and eye protection when handling and never boil rocks with zoas.
Beginner💡 Medium🌊 Medium
Larger cousin of zoanthids with bigger fleshy polyps. Very hardy and fast-growing. Contains highly toxic palytoxin - same handling precautions as zoas, possibly more concentrated.
Beginner💡 Low🌊 Low
Fleshy disc-shaped polyps in red, blue, green, and bounce morphs. Bounce mushrooms (with raised bubble vesicles) are highly prized. Loves shaded low-flow placements.
Beginner💡 Medium🌊 Low
Mushroom with tiny bumpy vesicles covering the disc - like miniature bubble wrap. Floridas are smaller/hardier; yumas are larger and more demanding. Multiplies by splitting.
Beginner💡 Medium🌊 Medium
Mushroom-shaped leather with a wide cap of feathery polyps. Periodically sheds a waxy film to clean itself - normal behavior, don't panic. Releases growth-inhibiting terpenes.
Beginner💡 Medium🌊 Medium
Tan or cream leather with thick finger-like lobes. Hardy nano-tank staple. Like other leathers, wages chemical warfare with terpenes - run carbon to keep it in check.
Beginner💡 Medium🌊 Medium
Famous for rhythmic pulsing of its feathery polyps - each polyp opens and closes constantly. Spreads aggressively, can take over a tank. Best isolated on a frag island or rubble pile.
Beginner💡 Low🌊 Medium
Purple encrusting mat with bright green star-shaped polyps. Bulletproof - grows in any conditions. Will overgrow rockwork and even glass. Quarantine to a single isolated rock.
Beginner💡 Medium🌊 Medium
Branching tan or pink soft coral that looks like a miniature tree. Reproduces by dropping branches that root wherever they land. Great for new tanks - tolerates wide swings.
Intermediate💡 High🌊 Medium
Most popular clownfish host. Tentacles inflate into bulbs when fed and well-lit. Splits to make clones once established. WILL roam until it finds a preferred spot - cover powerheads.
Beginner💡 Medium🌊 Low
Smaller, less mobile anemone in stunning radial color patterns. Stays put once placed. Won't host clownfish but is colorful and reef-safe. Affordable rainbow morphs available.
Picking Your First Corals
- New tank (under 3 months): start with zoanthids, mushrooms, GSP, or Kenya tree. They tolerate parameter swings while your nutrient cycle stabilizes.
- Stable tank (3-6 months): add hammer, frogspawn, duncan, candy cane, and acan. Easy LPS that reward feeding and good water quality.
- Stable tank (6+ months): try torch, blastomussa, chalice, and easier SPS like montipora digitata or stylophora.
- Established tank (12+ months): acropora, goniopora, and other expert-tier corals once your parameters are dialed in and stable for months.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the main types of coral in a reef tank?+
Reef aquarium corals fall into three groups. LPS (large polyp stony) corals like hammer, torch, and acan have a hard skeleton with fleshy polyps - generally beginner-friendly with moderate light needs. SPS (small polyp stony) corals like acropora and montipora have small polyps on a hard skeleton and need high light, strong flow, and ultra-stable water. Soft corals like zoanthids, mushrooms, and leathers have no hard skeleton and are the most forgiving for new tanks.
How do I identify a coral I bought from my local fish store?+
Start with three things: skeleton, polyp size, and growth shape. If the coral has fleshy tentacles or polyps that retract into a hard cup-shaped corallite, it's LPS. If it has tiny polyps on a hard branching, plating, or encrusting skeleton, it's SPS. If it has no hard skeleton and feels soft and fleshy, it's a soft coral. From there, match the shape and color to the cards in this guide. Common gateway corals (zoas, mushrooms, hammers, frogspawn, duncans, GSP) cover most beginner purchases.
What's the difference between LPS and SPS corals?+
LPS corals have large, fleshy polyps on a calcium-carbonate skeleton - think hammer, frogspawn, acans, brain corals. They tolerate moderate light, low to medium flow, and slightly elevated nutrients. SPS corals have small polyps on a similar skeleton - acropora, montipora, stylophora - and demand high light (PAR 200+), strong turbulent flow, and very stable, low-nutrient water. SPS are usually considered intermediate-to-expert; LPS are mostly beginner-to-intermediate.
Which corals are easiest for beginners?+
The easiest corals for new reef keepers are zoanthids, green star polyps, mushrooms (Discosoma and Ricordea), Kenya tree, toadstool leather, duncan, candy cane, hammer, frogspawn, and acan. These tolerate a wide range of light and flow conditions, recover well from minor parameter swings, and are inexpensive enough that learning losses are not painful. Avoid SPS, goniopora, and torch corals until your tank has been stable for 6+ months with consistent test results.
How much light do reef corals need?+
Light requirements vary by type. Soft corals and many LPS thrive at 50-150 PAR (low to medium light). Most LPS prefer 100-250 PAR. SPS corals need 200-400+ PAR with strong blue spectrum, depending on species - acropora and montipora caps need the high end while stylophora and digitata are happier in the middle. Acclimate every new coral slowly over 2-4 weeks, especially when moving from store light to home reef light - sudden changes cause bleaching.
Track every coral and parameter in one place
My Reef Log keeps a record of every coral you add, their growth over time, and the chemistry that keeps them thriving. Spot issues before they cost you a colony.
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