Beautiful Oceans: Cup coral by day and night

The orange cup coral, Tubastraea coccinea is a brillant red to orange reef building coral (also called 'scleractinian' or 'hermatypic' coral) that prefers shaded areas with water movement. Each coral reef organism is adapted to specific environmental conditions and learning the coral reef zone indicators clarifies two important points for you; the reason why coral reef zones differ from each other and why some species will be more abundant in one zone compared with another. Notice the bright orange colour of this coral species filmed at night compared to the dull red appearance during the day. Red and orange are the first colours to disappear with depth - the videographer's flashlight brings these colours back during a nightdive. (Videographer: Mark Sharman for Beautiful Oceans, Deep End Media, mark@deependmedia.com)

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Travel & Events

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• Beautiful Oceans
• coral
• reef
• scuba
• diving
• conservation
• ecotourism
• biology
• adventure
• snorkeling

[DannyB21]

Tubastraea is an azooxanthellate coral. So does that still classify it as an ahermatypic coral? Or is this one of those odd ball classifications?