Husbandry
For a long time we had been looking for a picture of the Montipora patula, this coral occurs endemic by Hawaii, and we have the incredible good fortune, that John P. Hoover, a famous marine biologist and photograph, also from Hawaii, has allowed us the use of his photos for the reeflex. Thank your very much, dear John!
Unfortunately, this coral also now belongs to the endangered animals, we find it on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
Colonies: The animal forms flat and partly curved plates, which reminds us of the shovels of an elk, and forms large colonies, sometimes larger than 200 cm in size.
Plates: The plates have free edges, the corallites are small and irregularly divided on the plates.
The papillae focus around the corallites.
Color: The plates of the coral have a light tan brown colour, the polyps are usually violet.
Similar species: Montipora effusa
According to Worms (World Register of marine species) this Montopora species is suppose to also occur on the east coast of Africa, here to Mozambique, according to Douglas P. Fenner also by the Johnston Atoll in the Pacific.