About Paragoniastrea australensis (Milne Edwards & Haime, 1857)
Paragoniastrea australensis colonies can be massive, submassive, or encrusting. Its corallites are arranged in meandroid deep valleys with steep walls; valley length can be short or long, depending on the coral’s growing habitat. The septa are even, regularly spaced, and extend over valley walls into adjacent valleys. Septa are finely toothed and have paliform lobes, while the columella are large. This coral is quite variable in colour, most commonly occurring in some shade of green or brown, and the valley floor often contrasts in colour with the rest of the colony surface. This widespread, common species occurs in shallow clear waters across the Indo-West Pacific, including the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Indian Ocean, Australia, Southeast Asia, Japan, and the China Sea.
