TAXONOMY
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Cnidaria
Class: Anthozoa
Order: Scleractinia (stony corals or hard corals)
Family: Faviidae
Genus: Platygyra sp.
GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS: Colonies can be massive, encrusting, dome-shaped or flattened. Corallites (the skeletal cup, formed by an individual stony coral polyp, in which the polyp sits) form meandering walls of brown, green, or gray surrounding contrasting valleys of cream, pink, gray, or even fluorescent green. Easily confused with Goniastrea and Leptoria.
DISTRIBUTION/HABITAT: Indo-Pacific, including the Red Sea and around Australia and Southeast Asia. Inhabits a variety of reef locations, including reef flats, back reefs, and deeper waters.
DIET: Primary nutrition received from the photosynthesis of symbiotic zooxanthellae. Supplemental diet from capture of microplankton by stinging tentacles.
REPRODUCTION: Sexually by spawning and asexually by budding (polyps divide to form new polyps)
CONSERVATION: IUCN Least Concern (LC)
References
California Academy of Steinhart Aquarium Sciences Color Hidden Reef Shrimpfish exhibit 2018
Ron’s flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/cas_docents/32394124350/in/album-72157659465376212/
Aquarium Corals E H Borneman 2001 ppg 298-99
Arkive www.arkive.org/brain-coral/platygyra-daedalea/
Carpenter, K.E. (1998) An introduction to the oceanography Corals ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/009/w7191e/w7191e10.pdf
IUCN Red List 2009 www.iucnredlist.org/
Ron’s WordPress Shortlink http://wp.me/p1DZ4b-1LE
