Coral for Sale in Australia
Gallery Aquatica sells coral online across Australia and from our store in Tingalpa, Brisbane. The range runs from beginner soft coral and zoanthids through to Acropora, and much of it is aquacultured rather than wild-collected, so a frag has usually spent its life under aquarium lighting and flow before it reaches you.
This page is the practical side of buying coral in Australia: what the categories actually mean, what makes one frag cost more than another, where the law sits, and how a living animal gets from Brisbane to a tank interstate. If you would rather just browse, the whole coral range is in one place.
Browse coral by type
| SPS coral | Small polyp stony. Acropora, Montipora, staghorn and birdsnest. The fastest growth and the most intense colour, and the least tolerant of swings in water chemistry. Best once a tank is mature and stable. |
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| LPS coral | Large polyp stony. Hammers, torches, frogspawn, acans, scolymia, favia, bubble and chalices. Fleshy, dramatic movement, and far more forgiving of moderate light and imperfect parameters. |
| Zoanthids and palythoa | Colony-forming polyps in almost every colour combination. Hardy, quick to spread, and the most cost-effective way to add colour. The largest single group in the store. |
| Soft coral | Mushrooms, leathers, star polyps, xenia, gorgonians and sympodium. No stony skeleton, low demands, and the usual honest answer to "what should I put in first". |
Within SPS there are separate Acropora and Montipora listings, which are the two groups most people search for by name. Smaller cuts sit in the frag shed, and there is a range of invertebrates if you need clean-up crew to go with the coral.
Aquacultured or wild collected
Aquacultured coral is grown on from a parent colony that already lives in a tank. Wild coral is harvested from the reef under licence. Both are sold legally in Australia and both can do well, but they behave differently in the first month.
An aquacultured frag has never known anything except artificial light, a return pump and a fixed temperature, so moving it to your tank is a change of address rather than a change of world. A wild piece has come from water with different light spectrum, different flow and far more stable chemistry than most home systems manage, and it generally takes longer to settle. If it is your first stony coral, aquacultured is the easier start. Much of our range is aquacultured for that reason.
One thing worth clearing up, because people search for it: live coral and dead coral are different products entirely. Dead coral skeleton is sold as ornament and as substrate, and it is not an animal. Everything on this page is live, and it arrives as a living animal that needs acclimating the day it turns up.
WYSIWYG: the coral in the photo is the coral you get
WYSIWYG stands for what you see is what you get. On a WYSIWYG listing the photograph is of that individual piece, and that piece is the one packed for you. On a standard listing the photo represents the type, and you receive a frag of the same coral that will differ in size, shape and exact colouring.
This matters more than it sounds for anything where colour is the point. Two Acropora frags cut from the same colony can look noticeably different under the same light. If you are matching a scape or paying up for a specific morph, the WYSIWYG SPS and WYSIWYG LPS listings remove the guesswork. There is a longer explanation in our guide to what WYSIWYG means.
The corals people ask for by name
Some searches are for a category and some are for one specific animal. Where the commonly used name differs from the label on the tank, here is the translation.
Mushroom coral is sold under its genus names, which is why you may not find it by searching "mushroom". Look for Ricordea, Rhodactis and Discosoma in the soft coral listings. Mushrooms are close to unkillable, they tolerate lower light and softer flow than almost anything else, and they spread on their own. For a tank that is only a few months old, this is where to start.
Torch, hammer and frogspawn are all Euphyllia, and they are the LPS most people picture when they imagine a reef tank: long flowing tentacles, heavy movement, strong colour under blue light. They want moderate flow and moderate light, and they need space, because Euphyllia will sting a neighbour it can reach. Check the LPS listings for what is cut at the moment.
Acans and scolymia are the other end of LPS: flat, fleshy, jewel-toned, and happy lower down the rockwork in gentler flow. Acan is short for Acanthastrea, now largely reclassified as Micromussa, so both names are in circulation and mean much the same thing to a buyer.
Acropora and Montipora are the two SPS groups worth naming separately. Montipora is the sensible first SPS: plating, encrusting or branching, and considerably more tolerant than Acropora of a tank that is still finding its feet. Acropora is the one people chase, and it is genuinely demanding, wanting high light, strong flow and alkalinity that does not move. Our guide to the easiest SPS for beginners works through why.
Zoanthids are named by morph rather than species, which is why you will see eagle eyes, rainbows and similar trade names rather than Latin. They are hardy and they spread. One caution that is not marketing: zoanthids and palythoa can carry palytoxin, which is genuinely dangerous to handle carelessly. Read our palytoxin care and safety page before you cut or scrape any of them.
Is it legal to buy coral in Australia?
Yes. Buying coral from an Australian retailer for a home aquarium is legal, and it is what the great majority of the hobby does. The regulation sits upstream of you, on collection and on international movement, rather than on the purchase itself.
Wild coral harvest in Australian waters is a licensed, quota-managed activity, and aquacultured coral is grown from stock that entered the chain that way. Hard corals are also listed under CITES, the international convention covering trade in protected species, which is why moving coral across a national border needs paperwork while buying it domestically does not.
Two things are not legal, and they are worth stating plainly because people do ask. Taking coral yourself from the wild, including anywhere inside the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park, needs a permit you almost certainly do not have. Sending coral out of Australia needs an export permit. If either applies to you, check with the relevant Commonwealth or state authority rather than relying on a shop page, including this one.
What drives the price of a coral
Prices are on the individual listings and they move, so there are no figures here. What is useful is knowing which levers set them, because it explains why two frags that look similar are not priced similarly.
Rarity of the morph does most of the work. A named, sought-after colour morph with a limited number of parent colonies in the country costs a multiple of a common one, even where the species is identical and the care is identical.
Growth rate pushes the other way. Anything that propagates quickly gets cheaper as more of it exists. That is why zoanthids and common soft coral are the inexpensive end and slow stony pieces are not.
Size and head count matter for LPS especially, where a multi-head piece is priced well above a single polyp of the same coral. Whether it is WYSIWYG adds something too, since photographing and holding an individual piece costs more to do than selling from a batch.
The practical advice: for a first stony coral, buy the common morph. Learn what your tank does to a coral on something replaceable, then spend up once the parameters hold steady.
How live coral ships around Australia
Coral is packed for transit and sent by premium overnight courier, with airport to airport airfreight available by arrangement with our team. Packing is export grade and built to hold condition for at least up to 48 hours in transit, which is the buffer that makes interstate delivery workable.
Several things about livestock freight are different from dry goods, and they are worth knowing before you order:
- Livestock is dispatched Mondays and Tuesdays by overnight courier, so nothing sits in a depot over a weekend.
- Free shipping does not apply to livestock. The over $150 free-shipping offer covers dry goods only, and coral, fish, live plankton, plants, invertebrates and live rock are all excluded.
- We cannot ship livestock to a PO Box. It needs an address where someone can take it.
- You need to be there to receive it, on the agreed day, at the address or at the destination airport. The quality guarantee depends on it.
- Weather can hold a shipment. In a heatwave or a cold snap we may contact you and wait rather than send, because the coral's odds matter more than the delivery date.
- Some remote and country postcodes cannot take livestock at all. If we cannot find a way to get it to you, we will contact you and arrange a prompt refund.
- Inspect it the day it arrives. If anything arrives damaged or dead, tell us the same day with a photo or video, by email or through our Facebook page.
Some destinations carry restrictions on live animals, and individual product pages note the current position. The full terms are on our freighting and packing page and in the shipping policy. If you need any further information, email shop@galleryaquatica.com.au.
Choosing your first corals
The order people usually regret ignoring is soft coral and zoanthids first, LPS second, SPS last. It is not about difficulty for its own sake. Each step up narrows how much variation in light, flow and alkalinity the animal will forgive, and a new tank varies more than its owner thinks.
A workable first order is a mushroom or two, a zoanthid colony, and one LPS with room around it. That mix tells you whether your light is in the right range and whether your parameters hold for a month, without risking much. Buy the Acropora after that, not before.
Give anything new a coral dip and a quiet, lower-light spot for its first week, and expect some colour loss while it adjusts to your fixture. A frag that pales for a fortnight and then picks up is behaving normally. Our guide to what coral frags are covers what a healthy frag looks like before you buy, and the buying guides cover the equipment side.
Buying coral in person in Brisbane
Colour on a screen is not colour under your own light, and a photograph flattens the movement that makes an LPS worth having. If you can get to us, choosing the actual piece solves both problems.
| Address | 59/1631 Wynnum Road, Tingalpa QLD 4173 |
|---|---|
| Phone | 0420 484 584 |
| shop@galleryaquatica.com.au | |
| Monday to Friday | 9:00am to 5:00pm |
| Saturday and Sunday | 9:00am to 4:00pm |
More detail on the store is on our Brisbane aquarium store page, and if you are ordering from another capital, start at shipping Australia wide.
Common questions
Is it legal to buy coral in Australia?
Yes, for a home aquarium, from an Australian retailer. The regulated activities are collecting it yourself and moving it across a border, not buying it.
Can you buy live coral online in Australia?
Yes. Coral is packed to export grade and sent by overnight courier, dispatched Mondays and Tuesdays. PO Boxes cannot be used, and some destinations carry restrictions, which the product pages note.
How much does live coral cost?
Rarity of the morph sets the price far more than the species does, so two frags of the same coral can be priced very differently. Current prices are on each listing.
What is the difference between live coral and dead coral?
Live coral is an animal. Dead coral is bare skeleton sold as ornament or substrate. Everything in our coral range is live.
Which coral should a beginner buy first?
A mushroom or a zoanthid colony. If you want a stony coral early, make it an LPS with space around it, and leave Acropora until your alkalinity holds steady for a month.
What does WYSIWYG mean on a coral listing?
What you see is what you get: the photo is of that exact piece, not a representative shot of the type.
Why can I not find mushroom coral on the site?
It is listed under its genus names. Search Ricordea, Rhodactis or Discosoma, or browse soft coral.
Can I pick coral up in Brisbane?
Yes, the store is at 59/1631 Wynnum Road, Tingalpa, open seven days.