Acropora echinata
A hard coral of the genus Acropora, described from a specimen from Fiji, with 'bottlebrush' colonies of thin branches. 1 2 It lives from the Indian Ocean to the central Pacific. 1 2 It is not restricted to deep water: on the Great Barrier Reef it is found both in shallow water and below 30 m. 3
At a glance
Data from the scientific sources listed at the bottom.
Depth in the wild
8–25 m
Size
up to 150 cm
maximum colony diameter [7] [11]
Conservation
IUCN Red List: endangered (2023). CITES: Appendix II. The listed criterion is A3ce. 1 The CITES listing currently in force dates back to 18 January 1990; in the European Union it is in Annex B. 6 In Palau, during a bleaching event, mortality close to 100% was reported. 5
Where it lives
WoRMS records it from Madagascar, India, the central Indo-Pacific and the Marshall Islands. 1 The Queensland reference collection holds specimens from the Maldives, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Great Barrier Reef, the Coral Sea, the South China Sea, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Micronesia, the Solomon Islands, New Caledonia and Kiribati. 2 A study on ranges gives limits of about 39° E and 176° W, between 29° N and 28° S. 7 10
The coral
Group: SPS
Growth form: hispidose ('bottlebrush'), with branches 25-50 mm long and 2.5-5 mm thick
Zooxanthellae: yes
Life in the wild
What it eats
It hosts symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae). 1
In the aquarium
From the experience of the BallingMania community.
An Acropora belonging to the “deep water” family (deep-water corals).
Being a deep-water coral, it prefers strong but gentle light; excellent results are achieved with T5 (fluorescent tubes). Its position in the aquarium should in fact be low down, in partial shade. It wants a continuous but not direct current. The colours range from blue to violet, and there is also a pink variant. A difficult Acropora, not recommended for beginners.
photo by: Alessandro Tomaselli
Did you know?
Sources
- Hoeksema B.W., Cairns S., Samimi-Namin K. (2026). Acropora echinata (Dana, 1846). World List of Scleractinia, via WoRMS.
- Wallace C.C., Done B.J., Muir P.R. (2012). Revision and catalogue of worldwide staghorn corals Acropora and Isopora (Scleractinia: Acroporidae) in the Museum of Tropical Queensland. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum - Nature.
- Muir P., Wallace C., Bridge T.C.L., Bongaerts P. (2015). Diverse Staghorn Coral Fauna on the Mesophotic Reefs of North-East Australia. PLOS ONE.
- 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.
- Palomares M.L.D., Pauly D. (eds.) (2026). Acropora echinata. SeaLifeBase.
- UNEP-WCMC (2026). Acropora echinata, CITES listings and distribution. Species+.
- Madin J. et al. (eds.) (2026). Acropora echinata. Coral Trait Database.
- Hayashibara T., Shimoike K., Kimura T. et al. (1993). Patterns of coral spawning at Akajima Island, Okinawa, Japan. Marine Ecology Progress Series, reference in the Coral Trait Database.
- Babcock R.C., Wills B.L., Simpson C.J. (1994). Mass spawning of corals on a high latitude coral reef. Coral Reefs, reference in the Coral Trait Database.
- Hughes T.P., Connolly S.R., Keith S.A. (2013). Geographic ranges of reef corals (Cnidaria: Anthozoa: Scleractinia) in the Indo-Pacific. Ecology, reference in the Coral Trait Database.
- Wallace C.C., Wolstenholme J. (1998). Revision of the coral genus Acropora (Scleractinia: Astrocoeniina: Acroporidae) in Indonesia. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, reference in the Coral Trait Database.
Sources checked on 5 November 2026. Community texts and ratings are kept separate from the scientific data.