We think that there’s a lot of corals in the global aquarium hobby but for all the SPS, soft corals, LPS, and various polyps we enjoy, these account for but a tiny fraction of corals out in the ocean. The…
Search Results For: nanipora
Nanipora ‘Living Fossil’ Coral Discovered Thriving in South China Sea
Nanipora is a very bizarre and unusual type of ‘fossil coral’ that you might have growing in your tank without even knowing it. First described just a couple short years ago, Nanipora is very unique in being able to grow a calcified skeleton, something only Tubipora pipe organ and Heliopora blue…
Nanipora kamurai, a skeleton-building Octocoral that could already be in your tank
Nanipora kamurai is a new species of Octocoral which may be small and nondescript, but it falls in a very special place on the soft coral tree of life. We are all taught that soft corals are by definition soft, and we…
The New Octocorallia: Scleralcyonacea (And A Few Remaining Mysteries)
Having now fully explored the Malacalcyonacea Part 1 and Part 2, it’s time to turn our attention to its sister group, the order Scleralcyonacea. These clades are roughly equivalent in terms of species-level diversity, but whereas the malacalcyonaceans included many…
Tubipora musica – Pipe Organ is the Octocoral Polyp with a Skeleton
Pipe organ is an interesting and very unique species of coral that comes in a dizzying amount of variety that isn’t celebrated nearly enough. Officially known as Tubipora musica the pipe organ coral has a very long and storied history being…
Hanabira yukibana, a New Species of Encrusting Polyps
Octocorals are a very diverse group of reef animals which include many different families, including the tiny and encrusting Stoloniferans that are very easy to overlook. Today a new genus and species of Stoloniferans gets recognized with the official description…
Top 7 new coral species of 2015
2015 was a record-setting year for new species of corals, not in terms of the number of new descriptions, but in sheer biological extremes and new discoveries. There were far more new species of reef fish described in 2015, but…
The top 6 new species of marine life this month
There have been a lot of new species descriptions in the last handful of weeks, and there are lots that can be said about each of them. We’ve covered them all individually but we wanted to bring your attention to…
