Cyphastrea Corals

What are Cyphastrea corals?

Cyphastrea is a genus of small polyp stony corals that grow as thin encrusting sheets across rock, with small, widely spaced corallites raised slightly above a contrasting base. Some species also form short branches. The look is distinctive: a flat field of colored dots against a differently colored background, which is where names like Meteor Shower come from. Cyphastrea is by some margin the most forgiving of the common SPS corals.

Cyphastrea morphs worth knowing

Cyphastrea are traded on the contrast between polyp and base color:

• Meteor Shower — the benchmark morph, with bright orange or yellow polyps scattered across a dark green base. Fast, hardy, and the usual starting point.
• Branching Cyphastrea — forms that grow short thick branches as well as encrusting, adding vertical structure that the flat morphs cannot.
• Grafted morphs — colonies carrying two distinct color zones fused together, producing a sharp boundary across a single sheet.
• 24k gold, Spearmint, and single-tone morphs — saturated uniform colors that read strongly under blue-heavy lighting and offer good value.

Cyphastrea care: light, flow, and alkalinity

Moderate to moderately high light and moderate, turbulent flow suit Cyphastrea best, though it adapts far beyond that range. Because it is an SPS building skeleton continuously, alkalinity stability is the parameter that matters most: swings show up as tissue recession at the growing margin. Track it with dependable water testing equipment and compare your reef lighting coverage if colors look washed out. No feeding is required, though Cyphastrea will take fine particulate foods.

A good first SPS coral

Most reefers who lose their first acropora would have had a better experience starting with Cyphastrea. It gives the same encrusting SPS growth pattern and the same visual reward for stable alkalinity, but it tolerates the nutrient swings and imperfect flow that a newer tank inevitably has. Use it to learn what stable alkalinity actually looks like on your system, and treat a healthy, spreading Cyphastrea sheet as the signal that the tank is ready for more demanding SPS.

Where Cyphastrea fits in a reef

Cyphastrea works best on a mid-level rock face where the encrusting sheet can spread and be seen straight on. Compare other approachable encrusting and branching SPS in montipora corals and birdsnest corals, see the whole group in SPS corals, or browse the full range of live corals for sale.