Orange/Sunflower Cup Coral

Description:

Orange cup coral (Tubastraea coccinea) belongs to a group of corals known as large-polyp stony corals. This non-reef building coral extends beautiful translucent tentacles at night, which gives the species its nickname, the sun coral. Tubastraea coccinea is heterotrophic and does not contain zooxanthellae in its tissues as most corals do.

Habitat:

Tubastraea coccinea inhabits shaded vertical surfaces and caverns down to huge depths. Orange-cup-corals are also found in very cold water throughout the world. Orange-cup corals often dominate tropical habitats not occupied by other coral species, such as wrecks and cryptic reef habitats. They also colonize artificial structures, but experiments have demonstrated similar preferences for granite, cement, steel and tile. In Brazil, they are most abundant in the shallow sub-tidal zone at shallow depths between 0m and 3m

Notes:

Pics #1 & #2 shows close-up of the opened polyps which makes them looks like flowers (sun flower). They opens up their polyps to feed during night time or when there is current.