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Chinese Lettuce Coral

Mycedium elephantotus

Description:

Colonies of M. elephantotus occur in attractive shades of green, purple, pink -- highly iridescent colors. The calice centers usually have a different color to the greener inter-corallite tissue. The relatively large corallites are always inclined outward, towards the edges of the colony's "leaves". Young colonies show a large central calice. It may form colonies of up to a meter across in sheltered areas, but would be smaller on fore-reef slopes. Polyps are extended only at night. Color: usually a uniform brown, grey, green or pink but may have green or red oral discs and may have a colored margin around the colony.

Habitat:

This species is found at various depths on fore- and back reef slopes. It can also tolerate sedimented lagoons, partly due to a tendency to grow on vertical faces in such habitats.

Notes:

Spotted this smallish colony in about 12m of water at Angel's Cove, Talikud Island.

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2 Comments

Blogie
Blogie 11 years ago

It looked really pretty underwater, Alice. :)

alicelongmartin
alicelongmartin 11 years ago

Cool Spotting!

Blogie
Spotted by
Blogie

Davao Del Norte, Philippines

Spotted on Jul 22, 2012
Submitted on Jul 24, 2012

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