Porkchop Coral

Pavona duerdeni

Also known as Porkchop Pavona, Pavona

SaltwaterCoral

Porkchop Coral (Pavona duerdeni) — Dr. Dwayne Meadows, NOAA/NMFS/OPR · Public domain

Care at a glance

Temperature: 75–81°F (24–27°C)
pH: 8.1–8.4
Adult size: 23.6 in (60 cm)
Minimum tank: 26 gal (100 L)
Temperament: Mostly peaceful
Social behavior: Solitary
Swim level: Bottom
Difficulty: Beginner
Breeding: Easy
Rarity: Rare
Reef safe: Reef safe
Origin: Indo-Pacific and eastern Pacific, including Hawaii, on wave-exposed reef fronts and slopes
Family: Agariciidae

Overview

A hardy, slow and forgiving coral once it takes hold, better suited to a keeper who wants a solid, stony centerpiece than fast growth. It handles moderate to strong light and strong flow, which suits its wave-swept origins, and it is not aggressive, though its heavy encrusting base will overtake anything in its path given years. Feeding is optional, since it lives on its light, but its main need is stability, as it sulks under swings in alkalinity or temperature more than it does under most other stress. It shows up in the trade less often than the leafy Pavona, usually as encrusting frags.

In the wild

Pavona duerdeni ranges across the Indo-Pacific and into the eastern Pacific, including Hawaii, often on wave-exposed reef fronts and slopes. It is a massive, mounding coral that builds smooth, rounded colonies split into thick parallel ridges or hillocks, pale pink to tan and hard as rock, that can reach several meters wide in the wild. In the aquarium it stays far smaller and is prized as a durable encrusting mound, taking moderate light and strong flow and slowly plating over the rock it is set on.

Good to know

Pavona duerdeni is a massive, zooxanthellate reef builder in the family Agariciidae, laying down dense skeleton in thick parallel ridges rather than the thin plates of its leafier relatives. It draws most of its energy from symbiotic algae, and its solid growth form makes it a genuine framework coral on exposed reefs. Its density and slow, steady growth are part of why it holds up so well to strong water movement.

Did you know

In the wild Pavona duerdeni piles into rock-hard mounds of parallel ridges several meters across, which is what separates it from the similarly massive Pavona clavus and its smoother columns.