Favia camranensis – a new species of moon brain coral

A new species of moon brain coral have been described by Yuri Latypov. The new species is called Favia camranensis and it might already have made it into the aquarium trade with other moon corals. It is also possible that the species is present in Aquaculture coral farms.

The species was discovered in Vietnam at Hon Nai Reef in Cam Ranh Bay. The colonies seems to aggregate and live in monospecific aggregations of five to twenty colonies. This species have a larger distance between the corallites than any other Favia species. Each corallite grows 2 millimeter above the last one. The corallites almost looks like shingles.

The new species has been found living on stony substrates in shallow waters at between three and six meters (10 to 20ft) depth. It usually grows in areas where you can find other Favia and Platygyra species.

Do you have an unidentified Favia in your tank and would like to know if you have a Favia camranensis. Use the pictures to see their distinctive corallite pattern. The species could have come through shipments at any time but the chance of you having a Favia camranensis is larger if you purchased a Flavia from vietnam imported during the last two years. There has been a lot more aquacultured Flavia moon corals exported from this area during that period than ever before.