Size: upto 16 cm.

 

Key Features: Pale grey with distinctive white corallite walls. Uniform brown in the western Indian Ocean. Colonies are encrusting to slightly dome-shaped and up to 160 millimetres across. Corallites are cerioid, polygonal and 3-6 millimetres diameter. Septa are evenly spaced and usually fuse with each other in fan-like groups. They have fine, saw-like teeth. Columellae consist of one to four pinnules.

 

Diet: Plankton, Zooxanthellae / Light.

 

Habitat: It is found attached to bare rock as well as on coral reefs, generally to depths of 20 m.

 

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

 

 

 

 

 

References:

IUCN Red List. http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/133585/0

 

Pseudosiderastrea tayami. In Australian Institute of Marine Science. Retrieved on June 18, 2014 from http://coral.aims.gov.au/factsheet.jsp?speciesCode=0336

 

Pseudosiderastrea tayami. In Reeflex , the Marine Aquarium Encyclopedia. Retrieved on June 18, 2014 from http://www.reeflex.net/tiere/4146_Pseudosiderastrea_tayami.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