Grooved brain Coral

Description:

(Find the tiny sharpnose puffer cruising by.) This species of reef-building coral has a hemispherical, brain-like shape with a brown, yellow, or gray colour. It has characteristic deep, interconnected double-valleys. These polyp-bearing valleys are each separated by grooved ambulacral ridges. There may be a difference in colour between the valleys and the grooves. It can grow upward at a rate of approximately 3.5 mm per year, achieving about 2 m in diameter. During its planktonic larval stage, the coral has locomotion. After that time, it becomes permanently sessile.

Habitat:

Weber's Joy/Witches Hut, Bonaire.