Montipora peltiformis

Montipora peltiformis is a colonial reef-building coral in the family Acroporidae, forming encrusting to sub-massive plates with a distinctively textured, often nodular or bumpy surface. Like other scleractinian corals, it is a colony of small polyps that secrete calcium carbonate skeletons, building the structural framework of coral reefs. It hosts symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae) that provide the majority of its energy through photosynthesis, while the coral itself extends tentacles to capture plankton, particularly at night.

As a reef-building species, it contributes habitat complexity that supports fish and invertebrate communities.

This species occupies shallow marine neritic waters across a broad Indo-Pacific range, including Australia, Japan, Taiwan, China, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Seychelles, Madagascar, Mauritius, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Hong Kong SAR China.

Populations are declining due to a combination of pressures. Fishing and harvesting activities damage reef structures directly and indirectly. Coral diseases and problematic native species, such as predatory outbreaks, degrade colony health. Habitat shifting and alteration, linked to warming seas and changing water conditions, stress reproductive and growth processes, while unspecified pollution sources add further chronic stress.

Conservation efforts rely on broader reef protection frameworks, including marine protected areas across parts of its range, international trade regulation under CITES Appendix II, and monitoring programs tracking coral reef health. No species-specific recovery program exists.

Given ongoing habitat degradation and multiple compounding stressors, the species' population trend is currently assessed as decreasing, with no clear signs of reversal.