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| hard corals text index | photo index |
| Phylum Cnidaria > Class Anthozoa > Subclass Zoantharia/Hexacorallia > Order Scleractinia > Family Dendrophyllidae |
| Cave
corals Tubastrea and Dendrophyllia sp. Family Dendrophylliidae updated Nov 2019 Where seen? These small hard corals grow in dark places. Tiny colonies were seen at Raffles Lighthouse, as well as at Changi! It is difficult to tell apart Tubastraea and Dendrophyllia corals without a very close look at the corallite structure. Features: Colony small, about 2-4cm in diameter, with a few large corallites often arranged like a bouquet of flowers. Usually in shady places in shallow water, e.g., under overhangs, under jetties, at the entrances of underwater caves, but also in other places with strong currents that bring in lots of plankton and nutrients. Corallites long and tubular. Polyp large (1-2cm), fleshy with many long slender tentacles. May be transparent, orange-yellow or brown. The polyps lack symbiotic algae (zooxanthellae) and usually only expand at night to feed on plankton. Cave corals produce among the most dense skeletons of hard corals and can grow quite fast in good conditions |
 Raffles Lighthouse, Jul 06 |
 Changi, Jun 12  |
 Keppel Bay, Oct 09  |
| Human uses: Tubastraea corals are among the first to have their bioactive compounds isolated. One compound called tubastrine was found to have anti-viral properties. The coral also produces substances that are toxic to the larvae of other hard corals, probably preventing these from settling near them. |
 Raffles Lighthouse, May 04  |
 East Coast Park, Aug 09  |
 Changi, Jul 12  |
*Species are difficult to positively identify without close examination.
On this website, they are grouped by external features for convenience of display.
| Cave corals on Singapore shores |
On wildsingapore
flickr
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| Other sightings on Singapore shores |
 Pasir Ris Park, Jul 09 |
 Kusu Island, Sep 19 Photo shared by Leon Tan on facebook. |
 Kusu Island, Sep 23 Photo shared by Loh Kok Sheng on facebook. |
 Pulau Tekukor, Mar 23 Photo shared by Loh Kok Sheng on facebook. |
 Terumbu Semakau, Nov 11 |
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Dendrophyllia and Tubastraea species recorded for Singapore from Wee Y.C. and Peter K. L. Ng. 1994. A First Look at Biodiversity in Singapore. *from WORMS
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