Given their common name of soft corals, one would likely assume that octocorals are well… soft. However, as is common in biology, there are always exceptions to rules. Within the Octocorallia, there are a few species that form aragonite-based skeletons,…
‘Branching’ Blue Ridge Coral More Widespread than Previously Known
Blue ridge coral is one of our favorite species of oddball reef species, being more closely related to soft corals yet building a unique type of hard skeleton. For ages coral fanciers wondered if there were more than one species of Heliopora and…
Heliopora hiberniana is a New Species of ‘White’ Blue Ridge Coral
Heliopora hiberniana is the first new species of blue ridge coral to be described in over two hundred and fifty years! Originally described by Palais in 1766, Heliopora coerulea, also known as Blue Ridge coral is a super common, widespread…
There’s probably more than one species of blue ridge coral, Heliopora
Blue ridge coral, Heliopora coerulea, is a unique species of coral in the wild and in the aquarium.Despite being extremely widespread and common on wild reefs, for some reason blue ridge coral is pretty rare in aquariums, even though it is a…
