At a glance
Data from the scientific sources listed at the bottom.
Depth in the wild
3–10 m
Conservation
IUCN Red List: endangered (2023). CITES: Appendix II. The listed criterion is A3ce. 2 The CITES listing currently in force dates back to 18 January 1990; in the European Union the species is in Annex B. 3 During the 2020 bleaching at Huangyan Island, in the South China Sea, 70% of its cover was bleached. 11
The coral
Group: SPS
Growth form: table-shaped
Zooxanthellae: yes
Where it lives
Tropical Indo-Pacific, roughly from 35° N to 31° S. 2 Records include Saudi Arabia, Djibouti, Mozambique, South Africa, Madagascar, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, Australia, Fiji, Tonga, Kiribati and the Cook Islands. 1 3
Life in the wild
Reproduction
A hermaphrodite that releases its gametes into the water; the figure comes from mass spawning on the Great Barrier Reef. 5 6 In a multi-species study, with colonies collected on the central Great Barrier Reef, larval settlement under controlled conditions exceeded 75%, with one exception. 10
In the aquarium
From the experience of the BallingMania community.
It belongs to the family Acroporidae. Colours: the colonies are a mixture of colours; blue, violet, purple and grey is the most common.
Place of origin: Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, Cambodia, Mozambique, Brunei Darussalam, Réunion, Australia, the Barrier Reef, Fiji, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, the Cook Islands, the Marshall Islands, the Solomon Islands, Madagascar, the Maldives, Malaysia, Mauritius, Micronesia, New Caledonia, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Tahiti, East Timor and Vanuatu. Habitat: upper reefs exposed to strong wave action; it lives at a depth of 3 to 15 m. In the wild tabular colonies up to 40 cm in diameter are seen; the colony is made up of short, thick branches on encrusting plates. The radial corallites are covered by thick flared walls and are arranged in rosettes.
The ideal conditions for this hard coral are a well-established reef aquarium. It is advisable to place it in the upper part, in a well-lit position. It needs strong, alternating but not turbulent water movement. Water conditions must be very good, with stable chemical values and a low organic and inorganic load. It is vulnerable to attack by pests and does not tolerate high temperatures well. Because it is difficult to keep, it is not suitable for aquarists with little experience
Species sheet and photo by Massimo Ramognino
What studies say about keeping it
Research data only, not advice for a home aquarium. In research facilities such as SeaSim, in Townsville, larvae have been kept for staining and settlement experiments. 10 An aquaculture study reports that ciliate diseases are a problem for large-scale coral farming and tested an extract of Melia toosendan: it is an experiment, not a cure to be applied. 12
Did you know?
Sources
- Hoeksema B.W., Cairns S., Samimi-Namin K. (2026). Acropora anthocercis (Brook, 1893). World List of Scleractinia, via WoRMS.
- Palomares M.L.D., Pauly D. (eds.) (2026). Acropora anthocercis. SeaLifeBase.
- UNEP-WCMC (2026). Acropora anthocercis, CITES listings and distribution. Species+.
- GBIF Secretariat (2026). Acropora anthocercis on the IUCN Red List (Edwards and Nuñez Lendo, 2024), data from GBIF. GBIF.
- Madin J. et al. (eds.) (2026). Acropora anthocercis. Coral Trait Database.
- Babcock R.C., Bull G.D., Harrison P.L. et al. (1986). Synchronous spawnings of 105 scleractinian coral species on the Great Barrier Reef. Marine Biology, reference in the Coral Trait Database.
- Wallace C.C., Done B.J., Muir P.R. (2012). Revision and catalogue of worldwide staghorn corals Acropora and Isopora in the Museum of Tropical Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum, reference in the Coral Trait Database.
- Carpenter K.E., Abrar M., Aeby G. et al. (2008). One-third of reef-building corals face elevated extinction risk from climate change and local impacts. Science, reference in the Coral Trait Database.
- Muir P.R., Wallace C.C., Done T., Aguirre J.D. (2015). Limited scope for latitudinal extension of reef corals. Science, reference in the Coral Trait Database.
- Doropoulos C., Roff G. (2022). Coloring coral larvae allows tracking of local dispersal and settlement. PLOS Biology.
- Chen B., Wei Y., Yu K. et al. (2024). The microbiome dynamics and interaction of endosymbiotic Symbiodiniaceae and fungi are associated with thermal bleaching susceptibility of coral holobionts. Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
- Ding D.S., Sun W.T., Pan C.H. (2025). Extract of the natural botanical Melia toosendan prevents and treats coral ciliate disease. Aquaculture.
Sources checked on 5 November 2026. Community texts and ratings are kept separate from the scientific data.
