Size: upto 25 cm.

 

Key Features: Uniform blue (which may photograph pink), green or brown, sometimes with white tips to the tentacles. Colonies are massive, hemispherical or irregular. Corallites are rounded with thin walls and have six prominent paliform lobes. Polyps are closely compacted, uniform in length and have tentacles of uniform length.

 

Diet: Plankton, Zooxanthellae / Light

 

Habitat: This species is found in subtidal reef environments, especially lagoons, generally to depths of 30 m. In the Arabian Sea it is found in non-reef substrates in areas subjected to cold-water upwelling between 2-5 m deep.

 

Conservation status: Least Concern on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

 

 

 

 

 

References:

IUCN Red List. http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/133054/0

 

Goniopora tenuidens. In Australian Institute of Marine Science. Retrieved on June 18, 2014 from http://coral.aims.gov.au/factsheet.jsp?speciesCode=0208

 

Goniopora tenuidens. In Reeflex , the Marine Aquarium Encyclopedia. Retrieved on June 18, 2014 from http://www.reeflex.net/tiere/2508_Goniopora_tenuidens.htm

 

Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) Project, Second Interim Progress Report, GEER Foundation, June 2012

 

 

Photo Courtesy

Charlie Veron. Australian Institute of Marine  Science. Licensed under CC BY-NC 3.0 via Creative Commons

Blue-Purple Goniopora (Goniopora tenuidens)