TankBud

Cat's paw coral

Stylophora pistillata

Also known as Club Finger Coral, Cluster Coral, Brush Coral

SaltwaterCoral

Cat's paw coral (Stylophora pistillata)
ALLEMAND D · CC BY-SA 4.0

Care at a glance

Temperature
75–81°F
24–27°C
pH
8.1–8.4
Adult size
5.9 in
15 cm
Minimum tank
20 gal
75 L
Temperament
Peaceful
Social behavior
Solitary
Swim level
Bottom
Difficulty
Difficult
Breeding
Easy
Rarity
Common
Reef safe
Reef safe
Family
Pocilloporidae
Origin
Indo-Pacific and Red Sea reefs; hardy maricultured colonies common in the trade

Overview

The cat's paw coral is a reef safe, branching stony coral for the mid to upper part of a reef tank. It is for experienced keepers.

Did you know

Stylophora pistillata is one of the most researched corals in science, used worldwide as a laboratory model. Much of what reefkeepers know about how corals build skeleton and respond to warming water comes from studies on this exact species.

Caring for the cat's paw coral

Give the cat's paw coral moderate to high light, roughly 300 to 400 PAR, with moderately strong, alternating or intermittent flow. Place it in the mid to upper tank with space around it. Fuzzy polyps extend across the branches when it is settled and happy.

Grow it in a tank of at least 20 gal (75 L). Keep the water at 75 to 81°F (24 to 27°C) and a pH of 8.1 to 8.4. Like all stony corals, it wants stable alkalinity, calcium and low nutrients. It is more forgiving of general conditions than Acropora, which makes it a common step-up SPS.

The cat's paw coral is sessile and passive. It has no sweeper tentacles and essentially no defense against other corals. Give it personal space rather than relying on it to hold its ground.

Good to know

Stylophora pistillata is a zooxanthellate SPS coral in the family Pocilloporidae, closely related to Seriatopora and Pocillopora. Its thick fingers with blunt, rounded tips give it the cat's paw and club finger names. It also goes by cluster coral and brush coral.

In the wild

The cat's paw coral comes from reefs in the Indo-Pacific and the Red Sea. Hardy maricultured colonies are common in the trade.

Symbiotic relationships

The coral guard crab and its Pocillopora

Guard crabs live deep in the branches of cauliflower, birdsnest and cat's paw corals and rarely leave. The coral feeds them: it produces fat-rich mucus and small tissue bodies the crab eats. The crab earns it. When a crown-of-thorns starfish or a coral-eating snail moves onto the colony, the crab pinches and pushes until it leaves, and when sediment settles on the branches the crab clears it, which is the difference between the coral living and smothering during a sediment pulse.

Small Pocillopora colonies often arrive with a guard crab already in residence; look for a fingernail-sized crab with a smooth, spotted or plain shell in the branches and leave it there. One crab or a mated pair per colony is the rule, they are harmless to everything else in the tank, and they need no feeding beyond the coral they live in. Without a host coral the crab has nowhere to be and does not last.

Every symbiotic relationship in the catalog

Common questions

What size tank does a cat's paw coral need?

A cat's paw coral needs at least 20 gal (75 L).

What temperature and pH does a cat's paw coral need?

A cat's paw coral is comfortable at 75–81°F (24–27°C) with a pH of 8.1–8.4.

How big does a cat's paw coral get?

An adult cat's paw coral reaches about 5.9 in (15 cm).

Related species