page_title: Favites pentagona
section_title: Ecology
hierarchical_section_title: Favites pentagona / Ecology
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Une colonie de corail Favites pentagona à la Réunion.
context_page_description: Favites pentagona is a species of stony coral in the family Merulinidae, sometimes known as larger star coral. It is native to the Indo-Pacific region and its range extends from the Red Sea through the Indian Ocean to the Western Pacific Ocean. This is a common species throughout its wide range and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has rated its conservation status as being of "least concern".
context_section_description: Favites pentagona is a zooxanthellate species of coral. This means that it harbours symbiotic unicellular dinoflagellates in its tissues, which use the energy from sunlight to synthesize nutrients, from which the host coral benefits. It is an aggressive species of coral. At night it extends its polyps to feed on plankton, and expands its elongated sweeper tentacles armed with stinging cells well beyond the limits of its base, so as to avoid being crowded or overgrown by other organisms. It clears away sand that settles on its surface by inflating its polyps to dislodge the sediment.
  F. pentagona is a simultaneous hermaphrodite, the eggs and sperm being released in well-formed bundles. In any one area, spawning tends to occur in synchrony, with all the corals liberating their gamete bundles at the same time. These rise to the sea surface and float, thus maximising the chance of successful fertilisation.
  F. pentagona is susceptible to black band disease and white plague, two coral diseases which have become more common since the 1990s.
caption: Brown coenosarc and green oral discs
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