Cyphastrea, a other lps. Beginner to keep, Typical PAR 50–120, low to moderate flow.
Rarity tier: common, reviewed 2026-08.
An encrusting coral read as a turquoise to teal sheet with red to orange corallites scattered widely across it, which is the starry look the name is about. The base is the green part and the polyps are the red part; this entry used to say the reverse.
Hardy, cheap, grows readily, and a good way to fill space on a rock without spending. The one mistake people make with it is generosity with light: this is a low-light coral, and put up on the rockwork under strong white it bleaches pale and the corallites lose their contrast, which looks like a coral that needs more light rather than less. Give it a shaded flank low down and it colours up on its own.
Middle rock with room around it, and it takes food. Meteor Shower Cyphastrea is beginner to keep at a typical PAR of 50–120 in low to moderate flow. A typical starting range for this type of coral rather than a measured requirement for this morph. Spectrum, how it was acclimated and the system it grew in all move it.
Full care notes for LPS of this kind
No verified sales yet. A range publishes once 3 dated, checkable records from 3 different sources exist, priced per frag and reported as a median, with what shops ask kept separate from what buyers paid. One frag is a single cut on a plug, whatever its exact size. Colonies, mini colonies and mother stock are excluded rather than averaged in. Nothing on this page is for sale. Shops are typically asking $20 to $35 per frag, median $25, across 25 shops surveyed on 2026-09-07; the full sweep ran $12 to $68. Asking prices are what sellers want, not what buyers paid. On 2026-09-07 it was in stock at 25 surveyed shops: barrierreefaquariums.com, boomcorals.com, coralexplorers.com, coralscoral.com, coralsofeden.com, coralstop.com, and 19 more.