Flower Pot Corals

What are flower pot corals?

Flower pot coral is the hobby name for two closely related genera, Goniopora and Alveopora, both of which grow as a rounded stony skeleton covered in long, individually stalked polyps tipped with a ring of tentacles. Fully extended, a colony looks like a bouquet of small daisies in constant motion, and it can expand to several times the size of the bare skeleton. They offer more visible movement than any other LPS corals in the hobby.

Telling Goniopora and Alveopora apart

The two genera are sold side by side and often confused, but one detail separates them cleanly:

• Goniopora — 24 tentacles per polyp. Longer, more substantial stalks and generally the bolder colors, including the reds, pinks, and neon greens most collectors want.
• Alveopora — 12 tentacles per polyp. A softer, feathery look, often in pastel tones, and widely considered the more forgiving of the two for a first attempt.

Beyond tentacle count the two behave almost identically in a reef tank, so a keeper comfortable with one will have no trouble with the other.

Flower pot coral care: light, flow, and feeding

Moderate light and moderate, indirect flow suit flower pots best. Too much current keeps the polyps folded and defeats the point of the coral; too little lets detritus settle into the skeleton. Compare your reef lighting and keep alkalinity and calcium stable with dependable water testing equipment, since the colony is laying down skeleton continuously. Feed fine particulate foods a few times a week while the polyps are open, and expect visibly better extension within a month of starting a routine.

Why aquacultured flower pots succeed

The difficult reputation attached to Goniopora comes almost entirely from wild-collected imports, which frequently declined over three to six months for reasons never fully identified. Captive-grown stock behaves very differently: it has already adapted to aquarium lighting, flow patterns, and prepared foods before it reaches you, and it arrives without the collection and shipping stress that wild pieces carried. If you have read that flower pots cannot be kept, that guidance predates the aquacultured stock now available.

Placing flower pots in a mixed reef

Give a flower pot room for its fully extended footprint rather than its skeleton, which usually means four to six inches of open space. They are not especially aggressive but the long polyps will contact neighbors, and repeated contact damages both. The lower rockwork and sand bed suit them, alongside other moderate-light LPS. Compare closely related long-polyp options in goniopora corals, browse all live corals for sale, or look through established pieces in coral colonies.