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Acropora loisettae

Currently accepted name: Acropora loisetteae

A hard coral of the genus Acropora, tree-shaped with thin branches, described in 1994 from material from Scott Reef, in Western Australia. 1 5 The correct scientific name is spelled loisetteae. 1 It lives between the eastern Indian Ocean and the central Indo-Pacific, and some museum specimens come from further east. 5 8

AcroporidaeSPSIUCN: EndangeredCITES II
Acropora loisettae

At a glance

Data from the scientific sources listed at the bottom.

Depth in the wild

1–30 m

0 m6 m12 m18 m24 m30 m

Conservation

NEDDLCNTVUENCREWEX

IUCN Red List: endangered (2023). CITES: Appendix II. The listed criterion is A3ce. 3 An older list, reported in the Coral Trait Database, gave it as vulnerable. 4 The CITES listing currently in force dates back to 18 January 1990; in the European Union it is in Annex B. 2

The coral

Group: SPS

Growth form: tree-like (arborescent) colony without a defined outline; cylindrical branches more than 10 cm long and 2.5-4.9 mm wide 5

Zooxanthellae: yes

Where it lives

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

The type locality is Scott Reef, in Western Australia; the Museum of Tropical Queensland also holds specimens from Thailand, Malaysia (Sabah), Indonesia (Sulawesi and Papua), Papua New Guinea and the Marshall Islands. 5 Species+ lists it for Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia and New Caledonia. 2 A study on coral ranges places it between about 20° N and 29° S and between 94° and 135° E, so less far east than the museum specimens suggest. 4 8

How to recognise it

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

12
  1. 1Tree-like branches an arborescent colony with long, cylindrical branches 5
  2. 2Separate side corallites the radial corallites do not touch one another 5

Life in the wild

Where it is found

A tropical coral reef species. 3 A 2008 dataset gives a depth of 1 to 30 m. 4 6 A 2015 study gives 22 m as the lower limit. 4 7

What it eats

It hosts symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae), according to Cairns's species list as reported by the Coral Trait Database. 4 9 I found no studies on its diet.

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

Acropora loisettae, from the Indo-Pacific, grows in arborescent colonies with prominent, thin, cylindrical branches.

It is a very hardy Acropora, with rapid and very extensive growth; keeping it successfully requires a medium level of difficulty, as long as it is placed under strong lighting and also exposed to strong water movement.

Photo by Ciro Murino

Did you know?

The Museum of Tropical Queensland holds the reference specimen (holotype) collected in Western Australia, and the species is assigned to the A. selago group. 5

Sources

  1. Hoeksema B.W., Cairns S., Samimi-Namin K. (2026). Acropora loisetteae Wallace, 1994. World List of Scleractinia, via WoRMS.
  2. UNEP-WCMC (2026). Acropora loisetteae, CITES listings and distribution. Species+.
  3. Palomares M.L.D., Pauly D. (eds.) (2026). Acropora loisetteae. SeaLifeBase.
  4. Madin J. et al. (eds.) (2026). Acropora loisetteae. Coral Trait Database.
  5. 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, record on Plazi.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. Cairns S.D. (1999). Species richness of recent Scleractinia. Atoll Research Bulletin, reference in the Coral Trait Database.

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

View the original sheet (Italian)All species