Red Flowerpot Coral

Bernardpora stutchburyi

Also known as Goniopora stutchburyi, Micro Goniopora, Red Bernardpora

SaltwaterCoral

Red Flowerpot Coral (Bernardpora stutchburyi) — (c) portioid, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY

Care at a glance

Temperature: 75–81°F (24–27°C)
pH: 8.1–8.4
Adult size: 7.9 in (20 cm)
Minimum tank: 11 gal (40 L)
Temperament: Peaceful
Social behavior: Solitary
Swim level: Bottom
Difficulty: Easy
Breeding: Medium
Rarity: Common
Reef safe: Reef safe
Origin: Widespread Indo-Pacific, Indian Ocean to the western Pacific
Family: Poritidae

Overview

This is the flowerpot coral for people burned by flowerpot corals, hardy, adaptable and content under low to medium light with gentle to moderate flow. It appreciates regular feedings of fine powdered coral foods, which noticeably speed up growth, and it encrusts steadily across nearby rock rather than ballooning upward. Acclimate it to new lighting slowly and it asks for little else, staying peaceful with everything around it.

In the wild

This small flowerpot coral is widespread across the Indo-Pacific on reef flats and slopes, including turbid inshore water, where it encrusts rock in thin sheets and low mounds. Its polyps are far shorter than the flowing tentacles of classic flowerpot corals, extending by day as a dense, even fuzz that gives the colony a velvet look. Red is the cultivated color the trade knows best.

Good to know

Long catalogued as Goniopora stutchburyi, this coral was moved into its own genus in 2014 after molecular work showed it was not a true Goniopora, and Bernardpora holds just this single species. It remains in the family Poritidae, and the old Goniopora name still dominates shop labels. The short polyps and encrusting habit are the quickest visual separators from its longer-polyped relatives.

Did you know

Reefkeepers noticed for years that the small polyp flowerpot always outlived the rest, and taxonomy eventually agreed, splitting it out of Goniopora entirely and leaving it as the only member of its genus.