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Anthozoans are exclusively marine, and include sea anemones, stony corals, soft corals, sea pens, sea fans and sea pansies. Anthozoa is the largest taxon of cnidarians; over six thousand solitary and colonial species have been described. They range in size from small individuals less than half a centimetre across to large colonies a metre or ...
Many soft corals are easily collected in the wild for the reef aquarium hobby, as small cuttings are less prone to infection or damage during shipping than stony corals. Nevertheless, home-grown specimens tend to be more adaptable to aquarium life and help conserve wild reefs.
Soft corals are able to produce both sexually and asexually. When a new polyp grows off an already existing polyp it is considered to be asexual reproduction. This process is referred to as budding. This reproduction method happens to be the most common among Chrysogorgia elegans. However, sexual reproduction also occurs in this species.
Corals reproduce both sexually and asexually. An individual polyp uses both reproductive modes within its lifetime. Corals reproduce sexually by either internal or external fertilization. The reproductive cells are found on the mesenteries, membranes that radiate inward from the layer of tissue that lines the stomach cavity. Some mature adult ...
Once settled on hard substrate, the polyps making up the broken coral grow and develop naturally and eventually mature into a coral colony that is genetically identical to the parent. [4] P. cylindrica, like all corals, is sessile, capturing food particles that are suspended in the water column. [10]
Unlike the hard stony corals that build coral reefs, invasive species can outcompete and kill coral reef-building stony corals, sea grass meadows and mangrove systems as well as other organisms ...
Primnoidae also lack the typical calcium carbonate skeleton that many shallow water corals possess, and many species of soft coral have no hard structural support at all. Other soft corals, such as those responsible for building seafloor habitats like Primnoa pacifica, contain a calcite and gorgonian skeletal structure, more flexible than ...
Litophyton arboreum, also known as broccoli coral, is a common soft coral found from the Red Sea to the Western Pacific. It grows up to 80 cm, usually on seaward reef slopes or hard bottoms. The color of L. arboreum varies from pale olive-green to yellow or grey. L. arboreum are anthozoans in the order Alcyonacea in the family Nephtheidae.