War Corals
Updated: Jul 24, 2021
I saw my first war coral on a rainy September day in 2018 in an old shophouse in the middle of nowhere. At the time, I was only starting out in the reefing hobby. Most of the corals I owned were green but this was special. It was red with grey patches all over. Grey! That was interesting, I thought. It was 50 bucks. I thought again. Then I bought it.
My First War Coral
The nice middle aged chinese uncle who sold me the piece called it an Oz Favia. Favia and Favites have always confused me. Even as an experienced reefer and for the longest time, I thought Favites were smaller versions of Favia because the name ends with “ites” (think crystallites vs crystals). It's true in some cases but this isn’t the right way to define Favities from Favia. “The main difference between the two genera is that corallites of Favites share a common skeletal wall, whereas the corallites of Favia have two distinct walls.” The War Coral is a Favites because the corallites share a common wall.
War Corals are a type of excrusting coral that do not require much care. They do well in low light and low flow making them perfect for placing on the lower part of the rockscape where there isn’t much of either. Those areas are also places where sediments deposit which can be food for the coral.
I love corals that throw out their feeding tentacles at night. War Corals do that!! They look so alien and menancing and cool all at the same time. And fortunately, these corals don't have long tentacles which means your other corals are safe from it.
Check out the squiggles on Purple
Another feature of War Corals is how inconspicuous they can be. They tend to disappear in plain sight and then one day I go, hmm.. I don’t remember the patch being so big and then I start to look at old photos and realize how much they've grown. These corals look really good as frags too. Glue a tiny piece with just 3 to 5 "eyes" on a plug and watch them slowly take over and cover everything! Be careful because they might just take over your frag stand.
Goodbye Frag Stand
Favites don't come very often in reef shops here in Singapore so it's exciting to chance upon any. If you see War Corals, please HMU. I currently own three different coloration of war corals. My first and favorite is the red/grey. My second is a purple one from the same uncle. It wasn’t looking great at the time but I nursed it back to health over 8 weeks. When I saw coloration starting to return, I provided light weekly dustings of Reef Roids to 补 the fella. My third and last piece is a red/green one from Coral Fanatics this year.
Purple nursed back to health
That’s all I have about War Corals. Come and share your knowledge about these amazing corals. As for coloration, I’ve seen teal and even orange ones on Google. If you have those, please let me know. I would love to check them out in person and if I’m 🍀 enough, buy a frag from you.