TAXONOMY
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cnidaria
Class: Hydrozoa
Order: Anthomedusae
Family: Milleporidae

Genus/species: Millepora sp. 

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GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS: Colored brownish, greenish or
grayish, often with a yellow hue and light tips. Skeleton calcareous with diverse growth-forms from fine branching, to domes, encrusting, or sheet-like. May form extensive colonies to 2 m diameter.

DISTRIBUTION/HABITAT: Pantropical, shallow reefs.

DIET IN THE WILD: Microplankton; zooxanthellae also provide nutrition.

REPRODUCTION: Sexual reproduction, with both medusa and polyp
stages; asexual reproduction via budding. Note Anthozoan corals have only a polyp stage.

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CONSERVATION STATUS: All coral reef species are threatened due to global warming. 

REMARKS: Fire corals are important reef-building organisms, though they are not closely related to the most common group of reef-building hard corals (Scleractinians), which belong to an entirely different class (Anthozoa). Unlike octocorals or hexacorals, fire corals possess polyps so small they are almost microscopic. One type is armed with nematocysts for food-capture and defense; the other type are capable of sexual reproduction. Potent nematocysts are also used to clear the coral of organisms that might shade zooxanthellae and can inflict a painful, burning sting to humans, hence the common name. Fire corals can outcompete many other corals by growing large quickly. and dominating the available space.

Venoms Cluster

Fire Coral PR24

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