Goniastrea is a genus of stony coral that belongs to the large-polyp stony corals. They belong to the family Merulinidae and often resemble brain corals in growth. Goniastrea are difficult to identify visually, as they have many different shapes and can be close in appearance to various other species such as Platygyra or Favia. We therefore usually use the name for the brain coral-like animals that have larger, roughly pentagonal polyps, while we tend to assign the species with elongate polyp valleys to Platygyra. These assignments are also constantly in flux and uncertain due to taxonomic re-descriptions and restructuring - for example, the "Goniastrea" palauensis with its iconic varieties such as Dragon Soul or Prisma has actually now been reassigned to the genus Coelastrea, or the typical "Goniastrea" australiensis, most often sold as Platygyra, has been reassigned to the newly described genus Paragoniastrea. So we use the genus "Goniastrea" in large part only as a trade name for visually similar animals. Fortunately, the requirements of this entire coral complex are just as similar as their growth habit - they require gentle current and low to medium light levels, feed on light via their zooxanthellae, and are not very demanding of water quality, even liking slightly elevated nutrient levels.
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