Frilly Montipora Care Guide
Frilly Montipora (Montipora aequituberculata) is a SPS coral. Care covers 150-250 PAR, medium-high flow, reef parameters and feeding; intermediate level.
Compiled by Aquairi from published sources · Published · Updated
Overview
Frilly Montipora (Montipora aequituberculata) is a SPS coral in the family Acroporidae. Plating Monti with frilly, ruffled edges. Often green or teal with pink polyps.
Taxonomy
- Family: Acroporidae
- Genus: Montipora
- Scientific name: Montipora aequituberculata
- Common synonyms: Aequituberculata, Frilly Monti
Habitat
In the wild, Montipora aequituberculata is reported from Indo-Pacific, where it occupies shallow reef flats and upper slopes (typically 1-15 m). The species adopts a plating growth form on hard substrate within zooxanthellate reef communities.
Tank requirements
- Salinity (specific gravity): 1.025-1.026
- Temperature: 24-26 °C (75-79 °F)
- pH: 8.1-8.4
- Carbonate hardness (dKH): 7.5-9
- Calcium: 420-450 ppm
- Magnesium: 1300-1400 ppm
- Phosphate (max): 0.05 ppm
- Nitrate (max): 10 ppm
- Minimum system age: 3 months
Placement and lighting
- PAR (placement zone): 150-250 PAR
- Water flow: medium-high
Place this SPS coral on the upper rockwork where light is bright and water movement is strong, ideally turbulent rather than laminar. Acclimate gradually to high PAR over 2-3 weeks to avoid bleaching. SPS demand a mature system: stable alkalinity, calcium, and magnesium with phosphate and nitrate kept ultra-low.
Feeding
Montipora aequituberculata hosts symbiotic zooxanthellae and derives most of its energy through photosynthesis. Additional feeding is generally not required when lighting is adequate.
Compatibility
This coral is passive toward neighbours. Reef-safe with most fish and invertebrates.
Care notes
Difficulty level: intermediate. Reported skeletal growth in well-tuned reef tanks is approximately 0.5-1 cm/month. Propagation by fragmentation is straightforward for plating colonies — separate branches or polyps with a bone cutter, glue to plug, allow 1-2 weeks for healing. Maintain stable alkalinity (avoid swings above ±0.5 dKH per day) to preserve tissue health.
Propagating Montipora aequituberculata (Frilly Montipora)
Overview
Montipora aequituberculata is a plating member of the family Acroporidae, often forming sheets with ruffled or frilly margins. Montipora colors span orange, brown, pink, green, blue, purple, yellow, grey and tan, and a single colony may display more than one growth morphology. The genus occurs on Indo-Pacific reefs and lagoons but is absent from the Atlantic.
Reproductive Mode
Montipora are hermaphroditic broadcast spawners; in the genus the eggs already contain zooxanthellae transmitted vertically from the parent. Aquarium propagation, by contrast, is asexual fragmentation.
Fragging / Asexual Propagation
Plating Montipora is forgiving to frag. A band saw cleanly divides the plate into chips, and coral cutters handle smaller cuts. Keeping fragments flat makes gluing to a plug straightforward.
- Cut the frilly plate into flat chips with a band saw or coral cutters.
- Apply cyanoacrylate glue matching the chip base to a plug or disc.
- Seat the chip, hold about 30 seconds, then return it to the system.
- Provide good flow and light again within a few hours.
Conditions for Propagation
Stable reef chemistry supports the colony's relatively fast encrusting growth. The Aquairi record targets medium-high light (about 150-250 PAR), medium-high flow and 24-26 C.
Common Challenges
Corallivorous butterflyfish and an undescribed Phestilla nudibranch feed on Montipora. Because the nudibranch is cryptic, dipping and quarantining new frags is the main safeguard.