Closed Brain, Moon Coral- Favia sp.

Family: Faviidae.

Favia (fay’-vee-ah) are some of the most common corals in the world. They are typically massive, domed or rounded shaped. Feeding tentacles emerge at night (see picture below), the flesh typically remains expanded during the day.

Favites spp. corals look very much like Favia spp. corals except that they have shared walls between the corallites whereas the Favia spp. such as the one above have individual walls for each corallite.

This coral is about 6 inches in diameter and 4 inches in height.

Macro view of favia polyps. The center of each individual polyp has a mouth. At night the feeding tentacles come out.

This shows the coral as viewed from above with my Acrylic Camera Box.

The coral is changing colors. The stripe pattern is interesting but I like the bluish color it had originally better.

This image shows one of the rare times this Favia sp. coral extended its feeding tentacles during the day.

This was taken nine months after the images above. It has been growing well and displays amazing feeding tentacles at night.

I can’t believe it was 18 months since I posted a picture of this coral.

It clearly has gained girth in every direction.