cnidarians text index | photo index
Phylum Cnidaria
Hard corals with big rings and fleshy tissue
How to tell them apart?
updated Jun 2021
Some corals with big ring-shaped corallites covered in thick fleshy tissue may look similar. With the flesh totally retracted, anchor corals may also be mistaken for these corals. Here's more on how to tell them apart.
 
Lobed brain coral
Lobophyllia sp.
Family Mussidae		 Trumpet coral
Caulastraea sp.
Family Merulinidae		 Branching anchor coral
Euphyllia paraancora
Family Euphyllidae
Corallite large with large spiky teeth. Corallite small with fine teeth. Corallites trumpet-shaped
(phaceloid) and branching.
Tissue thick and very fleshy,
with bands of fine 'pimples' (not smooth),
usually uniformly coloured.		 Tissue fleshy but not very thick,
smooth (no pimples),
often with bands in contrasting colours.		 No fleshy tissue. Instead, has
polyps with long tentacles (2-3cm) and a U-shaped tip.
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