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Duncanopsammia axifuga

A colonial hard coral with large polyps, sought after by the international aquarium trade but little studied in the wild. 5 8 In Australia it is among the most collected species. 6 By day it extends its tentacles. 9

DendrophylliidaeLPSIUCN: Least concernCITES II
Duncanopsammia axifuga

At a glance

Data from the scientific sources listed at the bottom.

Depth in the wild

8–30 m

0 m6 m12 m18 m24 m30 m

Conservation

NEDDLCNTVUENCREWEX

IUCN Red List: least concern (2023). CITES: Appendix II. The CITES listing covers all Scleractinia since 18 January 1990, excluding fossils; in the European Union it is in Annex B. 2 Red List assessment taken from SeaLifeBase. 3 In 2019-2020 this and five other species made up more than 35% of the catch of the Queensland coral fishery: 14.2 tonnes, equal to 317,718 pieces. 6

The coral

Group: LPS

Growth form: colonial; it can be attached to a hard substrate or live as loose fragments on the sediment 5 6

Zooxanthellae: yes

Growth: In fragments that started with one polyp, Artemia increased growth and the number of polyps. 8

Where it lives

Red SeaWestern Indian OceanEastern Indian OceanCentral Indo-PacificWestern PacificCentral PacificEastern PacificWestern AtlanticEastern AtlanticMediterranean

WoRMS gives it in Australian waters and the central Indo-Pacific. 1 Species+ lists Australia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Vietnam. 2 A 2022 study recorded it on the Bird's Head Peninsula, in West Papua, as the northern limit of the species. 5 The pieces collected for the study on the Australian fishery came from Queensland and Western Australia. 6

How to recognise it

Tap a number on the photo: the key explains what to look for.

12
  1. 1Extended tentacles visible by day 9
  2. 2Large polyp one of the many polyps in the colony 6 8

Life in the wild

Where it is found

The global estimate is 8-30 m. 4 In West Papua, however, a population lived at 5 m, in turbid water on a sediment-rich coastal reef: some corals were attached to dead corals, others were loose fragments on the sediment. 5

What it eats

It hosts zooxanthellae. 4 It also catches prey: with Artemia it reached about 23 individuals per polyp per hour, with no difference between day and night. 7 By day its extended tentacles serve to catch prey and take up nutrients. 9

Behaviour

It is a species that extends its tentacles by day; artificial light at night of 1.2 micromoles or more disrupts its rhythm. 9 In West Papua one specimen was damaged by contact with a neighbouring Goniopora coral; specimens lying free on the sand may escape competition for space more easily. 5

Reproduction

In the wild it is poorly documented: the Indo-Pacific database on gamete release has only two observations for the genus. 10 In culture it produces new polyps even from fragments that initially have none. 8

In the aquarium

From the experience of the BallingMania community.

Community rating
Position in the tank
lowmediumhigh
Water flow
lowmediumhigh
Light intensity
lowmediumhigh
Aggression
lowmediumhigh
Care difficulty
lowmediumhigh
Original sheet

It belongs to the family Dendrophylliidae and comes mainly from Australia and the South China Sea. It feeds through its zooxanthellae, but it does not turn down a little food such as Artemia, plankton or pellets now and then; on the contrary, this will help it reproduce.

Fairly easy to grow, but it needs low pollutants, otherwise it tends to close up, and because of this trait it can be put on the list of "sentinel" animals.

If conditions in the aquarium are favourable it grows fairly quickly, creating beautiful colonies made up of independent "branches" that are easy to frag.

Photo and description by Loredana Prologo

What studies say about keeping it

Results of aquaculture studies, not instructions for the tank. In one experiment 85% of the fragments survived, and those attached without polyps produced the largest number of new polyps, regardless of food. 8 The polyps increased their consumption of Artemia up to 120 individuals per millilitre; above that concentration it did not change. 7

Did you know?

It was described in 1848 under the name Dendrophyllia axifuga. 1
The pieces studied in Australia varied a great deal: on average 258 g and 11.2 cm in Western Australia, 126 g and 10.3 cm in Queensland, with a maximum of 2,750 g and 30.5 cm. 6

Sources

  1. Hoeksema B.W., Cairns S., Samimi-Namin K. (2026). Duncanopsammia axifuga (Milne Edwards & Haime, 1848). World Register of Marine Species.
  2. UNEP-WCMC (2026). Duncanopsammia axifuga, distribution and CITES listing. Species+.
  3. SeaLifeBase (2026). Duncanopsammia axifuga, stato IUCN. SeaLifeBase.
  4. Coral Trait Database (2026). Duncanopsammia axifuga in the Coral Trait Database: depth from Carpenter et al. (2008), zooxanthellae from Cairns (1999). Coral Trait Database.
  5. Subhan B. et al. (2022). A New Northernmost Distribution Record of the Reef Coral Duncanopsammia axifuga at Bird's Head Peninsula, West Papua, Indonesia. Diversity.
  6. Pacey K.I., Caballes C.F., Pratchett M.S. (2023). Using size-weight relationships to estimate biomass of heavily targeted aquarium corals by Australia's coral harvest fisheries. Scientific Reports.
  7. Tagliafico A., Rangel S., Kelaher B., Christidis L. (2018). Optimizing heterotrophic feeding rates of three commercially important scleractinian corals. Aquaculture.
  8. Tagliafico A., Rangel S., Kelaher B., Scheffers S., Christidis L. (2018). A new technique to increase polyp production in stony coral aquaculture using waste fragments without polyps. Aquaculture.
  9. Mardones M.L. et al. (2023). Artificial light at night (ALAN) disrupts behavioural patterns of reef corals. Marine Pollution Bulletin.
  10. Baird A.H. et al. (2021). An Indo-Pacific coral spawning database. Scientific Data.

Sources checked on 5 November 2026. Community texts and ratings are kept separate from the scientific data.

View the original sheet (Italian)All species