Large meat corals such as this one display striking red and blue colors.

Indo-Pacific - Islands of the Indopacific including Fiji, Tonga, Solomon Islands, and the Great Barrier Reef.

Medium to high lighting would serve this species well. Scolymia can be kept under high output fluorescent bulbs, but may benefit from more intense lighting. It will likely change its coloration depending on the lighting provided. Scolymia may require a longer acclimation period to intense lighting such as metal halides.

We recommend keeping the coral in a relatively low flow area of the reef display. Too much flow could cause this particular species to become stressed and not extend fully.

Like most coral, Scolymia rely to a large extent on the products of their zooxanthellae, however, in our experience, they also benefit from direct feeding. There are a variety of frozen fish foods available that make outstanding meals for Scolymia. We like to feed a mixture of meaty foods such as shrimp, fish, and squid with vitamin additives and highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFA). The size of the food must be small enough that the polyp can fully ingest it.

This genus either has never been propagated or is propagated so seldom the occurrences are statistically insignificant. This may be as a result of a number of factors such as growth rate and susceptibility to infection. We feel at this time, Scolymia is not a good candidate for aquaculture.