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| hard corals text index | photo index |
| Phylum Cnidaria > Class Anthozoa > Subclass Zoantharia/Hexacorallia > Order Scleractinia > Family Acroporidae |
| Pebble
coral Astreopora sp.* Family Acroporidae updated Nov 2019 Where seen? This hard coral with a pebbly surface is sometimes seen on some of our Southern shores. Features: Colonies large (about 20cm or more). Colonies are solid (massive) and may be dome-shaped or encrusting, with a few species forming tiers of thick plates. Corallites small, circular opening (1cm or less), usually in a blunt conical shape. The many conical shapes result in a pebbled appearance. The corallites and the surface between corallites usually covered with tiny bumps. New corallites emerge in between existing corallites. The polyps look like tiny sea anemones with 24 tentacles that are flat and petal-like, and a thick body column. Extended polyps usually only seen at night. Colours seen include brown, blue, green sometimes with tinges of other colours. Sometimes mistaken for Turbinaria or Echinopora species. Status and threats: Some of our Pebble corals are listed as threatened on the IUCN global listing. Like other creatures of the intertidal zone, they are affected by human activities such as reclamation and pollution. Trampling by careless visitors, and over-collection by hobbyists also have an impact on local populations. |
 Terumbu Pempang Tengah, May 11 |
 Polyps with 24 flat, petal-like tentacles. |
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 Pulau Hantu, Jun 08  |
 Pulau Hantu, Apr 06  |
 Terumbu Pempang Tengah, May 11 
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*Species are difficult to positively identify without close examination.
On this website, they are grouped by external features for convenience of display.
| Pebble corals on Singapore shores |
On wildsingapore
flickr
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| Other sightings on Singapore shores |
 Sentosa Serapong, May 24 Photo shared by Loh Kok Sheng on facebook. |
 Terumbu Semakau, Jun 10 Photo shared by Loh Kok Sheng on his flickr. |
 Pulau Berkas, May 10  |
 Pulau Berkas, May 10  |
 Pulau Berkas, May 10  |
 Pulau Biola, May 10  |
 Pulau Pawai, Dec 09  |
 Terumbu Salu, Jan 10  |
 Pulau Salu, Jun 10 Bleaching. |
| Astreopora
species recorded for Singapore from Danwei Huang, Karenne P. P. Tun, L. M Chou and Peter A. Todd. 30 Dec 2009. An inventory of zooxanthellate sclerectinian corals in Singapore including 33 new records **the species found on many shores in Danwei's paper. *Groups based on in Veron, Jen. 2000. Corals of the World. in red are those listed as threatened on the IUCN global list.
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