Echinopora pacificus (Pavement Coral) Care Guide
Echinopora pacificus is a photosynthetic Pacific stony coral forming encrusting pavement-like plates; a hardy beginner LPS coral.
Compiled by Aquairi from published sources · Published · Updated
Overview
Echinopora pacificus is a colonial stony coral of the family Merulinidae, described by Veron in 1990. It is zooxanthellate (photosynthetic) and grows as encrusting, pavement-like plates, which gives it its common aquarium name. A bright neon-green morph is popular, and it is regarded as a hardy, beginner-friendly LPS coral.
Taxonomy
- Order: Scleractinia
- Family: Merulinidae
- Genus: Echinopora (established by Lamarck, 1816)
- Scientific name: Echinopora pacificus
- WoRMS revision: accepted name is Echinopora pacifica (Veron, 1990), a grammatical correction of the epithet
- Common names: Pavement Coral, Hedgehog Coral
Habitat
The species is widespread in the tropical Pacific, recorded from Australia and the Great Barrier Reef across Indonesia, the Philippines, Micronesia and many western Pacific island groups. Colonies are usually unifacial plates with laminar margins and encrusting centres, with corallites up to about 10 mm in diameter.
Tank requirements
- Salinity: 1.024–1.026 SG
- Temperature: 24–26 °C (75–79 °F)
- pH: 8.1–8.4
- dKH (alkalinity): 8–11
- Calcium: 400–450 ppm
- Magnesium: 1280–1350 ppm
- Nitrate: below 5 ppm; phosphate below 0.03 ppm
- Lighting: medium (about 75–175 PAR)
- Flow: medium
- Minimum tank age: about 3 months
Feeding
It is mainly photosynthetic, deriving energy from its symbiotic zooxanthellae under suitable lighting. It does not strictly require feeding but can take fine foods such as reef-roids; moderate flow helps keep its plates free of sediment.
Compatibility
Echinopora is moderately aggressive and can extend sweeper tentacles at night, so several centimetres of clearance from neighbouring corals is advised. With spacing it is reef-, shrimp- and fish-safe.
Pavement Echinopora (Echinopora pacificus): Propagation Guide
Overview
Echinopora is a genus of stony corals in the family Merulinidae. Pavement-forming Echinopora grows as an encrusting crust over rock, spreading flat before some species lift into laminar plates, which makes it a fast-spreading, beginner-friendly chalice-style coral. As a member of Merulinidae it carries symbiotic zooxanthellae and builds a calcium-carbonate skeleton.
Reproductive Mode
Like other reef-building Merulinidae, Echinopora reproduces sexually by releasing gametes into the water, but in aquaria propagation is overwhelmingly asexual. Its encrusting habit means a colony continually extends over adjacent rock, so cut sections regenerate readily from the crust margin.
Fragging / Asexual Propagation
For an encrusting coral the cleanest method is to cut a fully crusted section with a band saw, or to break off a piece of the rock the crust has grown over, ensuring each frag carries several corallites and live tissue. Frags are dipped, glued to a plug or rubble, and placed where the crust can resume spreading onto the new substrate.
Conditions for Propagation
Healing frags do well under medium light and moderate flow that keeps detritus from settling on the crust. Stable alkalinity and calcium support the continuous skeletal deposition that drives the pavement growth form.
Common Challenges
Because it spreads aggressively, pavement Echinopora can encroach on and overgrow slower neighbors, so frags need room or a barrier of bare rock. Detritus trapped on the flat crust during healing can cause tissue recession if flow is too weak.