Lobophytum
| Lobophytum | ||||||||||||
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Lobophytum sp. |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Lobophytum | ||||||||||||
| Marenzeller , 1886 |
Lobophytum is a genus of leather corals (Alcyoniidae) from the coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific .
features
Like all corals, they are animal colonies made up of many individual polyps . Lobophytum species have a short trunk on which there is an umbrella with lamellar or finger-shaped outgrowths. At the top of the screen are the polyps , of which there are two forms. The feeding polyps (autozoids) have eight feathered tentacles and can retract completely into the umbrella. In between sit tiny regressed tubular polyps (siphonozoids), whose job it is to pump or drain water into the body of the colony. Outwardly, one sees only small bumps or pores on the coral screen. Lobophytum is similar to the leather coral genus Sarcophyton , but only ever has outgrowths and lobes on the edge of the umbrella.
As with all leather corals, the body of the Lobophytum is supported by small calcified needles ( sclerite ). The body of the animals is usually cream-colored, yellowish or light brownish. Few species have a greenish shimmer. The polyps are usually the same color. In some species the autozoids are white. Lobophytum live in an endosymbiosis with unicellular, symbiotic algae ( zooxanthellae ).
Lobophytum species can be kept in saltwater aquariums. Here, too, they often reach sizes of 50 centimeters in diameter.
The World Register of Marine Species currently lists 61 valid species (as of October 2013).
literature
- Svein A. Fosså / Alf Jacob Nilsen: Coral Reef Aquarium , Volume 4, Birgit Schmettkamp Verlag, Bornheim, ISBN 3-928819-05-4
