Reef corals, soft to stony.
Corals are not plants and not rocks - they are animals, colonies of tiny relatives of jellyfish and anemones, and keeping them is its own hobby inside the aquarium world. Here are 18 profiles sorted the way reefers actually progress - soft corals first, then LPS, then the demanding SPS - with the lighting, flow, water and honest difficulty of each.
🪸 Soft corals The hardy starting point - no stony skeleton, forgiving of light and flow. Where every reefer begins.
🌸 LPS - large-polyp stony corals Fleshy, feedable, flowing - the colourful middle ground. Many sting, so mind the spacing.
🌿 SPS - small-polyp stony corals The demanding, fast-growing show corals. Rock-steady water only - not for new tanks.
Reefers climb a ladder for a reason: master a stable tank with soft corals, graduate to LPS, then try SPS - and only reach for acropora once the water has been rock-steady for months. Anemones (like the bubble-tip that hosts clownfish) are a separate, mobile, stinging animal with their own care - not covered here. And remember: despite the "flowers" and the "sea plant" look, a coral is an animal, so its care has nothing in common with an aquarium plant.