Can someone please identify this?

[archman]

Hawaiian name Ko-a-Kohe, the Mushroom coral is the only free living single coral polyp.

I'm sure the gazillion other solitary coral species would be upset to know this. From what source did you read this?

 

[donnyb]

I'm sure the gazillion other solitary coral species would be upset to know this. From what source did you read this?

Well the info came from a book "Hawaiian Coral Reef Ecology"
I think they meant single polyps that are solitary, not colonial.
I did see what looked like a single polyp solitary coral in the sandy bottoms around Bali though. I assumed it was also some form of mushroom coral but much smaller, diameter of a nickle.

If you have info on others please give links. Happy to be corrected.

 

[archman]

Well the info came from a book "Hawaiian Coral Reef Ecology"
I think they meant single polyps that are solitary, not colonial.

Yeah, that source is dead wrong. Anyone that knows even a shred about corals knows that solitary-polyp species are all over the place. I don't know anything about hawaiian shallow reefs, so perhaps that particular mushroom coral is the only solitary species commonly found in your area. Nah... I don't buy that either.

You can do any number of internet searches on "solitary coral" that will show you all sorts of species that are nothing more than a single polyp and a corallite. The definitive online site is the Tree of Life database. The scleractinian section is only partially started, but there's some pics and descriptors for solitary corals. Stephen Cairnes is the national expert.
http://tolweb.org/Scleractinia/17653

I have a small heap of solitary corals sitting on a shelf right behind me. They're good for showing students corallite anatomy, since their corallites are often so bloody enormous!

 

[donnyb]

Thanks, I stand corrected. Fungia scutaria is one of the few solitary, free living (non-sessile) Hawaiian corals. I think the book meant (my understanding) that the mushroom corals (and others commonly grouped into that general name) are unique in that they are hard singular polyps and not attached/anchored. Would you agree?

 

[archman]

The family Fungiidae can be set apart from other solitary tropical families in that most species aren't stuck to hard substrate. Most of the other shallow tropical solitary corals stick to rocks. Mussids for one.

But fungiid "mushroom corals" certainly aren't the only non-attached solitary corals. Lots of the deepwater caryophyliids don't attach either. There's a lot more caryophyliids than fungiids.

My gut feeling is that the Hawaiian book author is a hermatypic coral reef person, and not well acquainted with other coral forms, specifically the highly diverse deepwater types. It's been my experience over the years that coral reef scientists tend to have a sort of ecological tunnel vision that limits their understanding of anything "not tropical coral reef". So long as comments are prefaced with "regarding hermatypic reefs", this isn't really a problem though.

 

[justleesa]

They are not attached to anything and can "move around". Although the are found in the middle of no where, they are healthy and alive. I have heard them being called Razor Coral by locals