Favites Brain Coral

Favites sp. closely resembles Favia but is distinguished by its meandroid or phaceloid corallite structure where adjacent polyps share walls rather than each having a discrete individual wall — creating a subtly different surface texture and polyp density. Its colonies form compact, rounded mounds available in a wide spectrum of natural and aquaculture-developed color morphs, making each specimen a unique collectible. Favites is an active feeder that extends long, prominent sweeper tentacles at night to catch drifting plankton and to aggressively defend its territory from encroaching neighboring corals — significantly more so than Favia — and must be given generous spacing in the reef layout. It is a robust and long-lived LPS species well suited to established reef systems.

Place in medium-light zones with moderate, indirect flow, well away from other corals and sessile invertebrates — Favites sweeper tentacles can extend 5–10 cm at night and will sting and damage nearby corals. Target feed weekly with Reef-Roids, frozen copepods, or LPS coral paste. Maintain stable reef chemistry: alkalinity 8–11 dKH, calcium 400–450 ppm. Do not place two Favites colonies within sweeper range of each other.