Grape coral (Euphyllia cristata) care guide
- Group
- Corals
- Other names
- Grape Euphyllia
- Family
- Euphylliidae
- Origin
- Indo-West Pacific reefs
- Water
- saltwater
- Temperature
- 22–26°C
- pH
- 8.1–8.4
- Hardness
- dKH 8–12
- Care level
- intermediate
- Reef safe
- with_caution
- Lighting
- Moderate
- Flow
- Gentle to medium
Care
Euphyllia cristata is the grape coral, a large-polyp stony (LPS) coral with round, smooth-tipped tentacles that look like a bunch of grapes or small bubbles. Colours are usually green, grey or cream, sometimes with paler tips. It is rarer in the trade than torch, hammer or frogspawn. LiveAquaria does not have a separate listing; the care below draws on its frogspawn listing, a close relative in the same genus. Placement: middle of the rockwork in moderate light and gentle to medium flow, with plenty of space around it. Water: alkalinity dKH 8–12, pH 8.1–8.4, with calcium, strontium, magnesium and trace elements kept up. Growth is slow to moderate. Selling: this is a CITES Appendix II coral. Frags grown in the UK can be sold freely; wild-collected or imported pieces must have been legally imported with CITES paperwork. Sources: LiveAquaria (liveaquaria.com/products/frogspawn-coral). Checked October 2026.
Diet
Photosynthetic, but it benefits from target feeding with small meaty foods such as mysis or brine shrimp once or twice a week.
Breeding
Colonies are usually small, with only a few heads, and growth is slow, so frags are less common than for torch or hammer corals. Once a colony has several heads it can be split by cutting through the skeleton between heads, below the tissue, with bone cutters or a saw, then gluing each piece to a plug with gel superglue or epoxy.
Compatibility and tank mates
Aggressive, like other Euphyllia: sweeper tentacles can extend several centimetres at night and sting neighbours, so give at least 15 cm clearance. Angelfish and butterflyfish may nip it.
Last updated 8 October 2026. Community-edited care guide on Aquatic-Auctions.