Wire corals
| Wire corals | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cirrhipathes sp. |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Cirrhipathes | ||||||||||||
| de Blainville , 1830 |
Wire corals ( Cirrhipathes ) are animal colonies consisting of many individual polyps that sit on a single, irregular, or spirally wound branch. They belong to the squirrel corals and have a horny, flexible skeleton. Cirrhipathes species live in the coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific and the Caribbean , mostly at greater depths. The wire coral colonies usually live individually between other corals, sponges and other sessile animals. Wire corals feed on plankton and prefer locations with strong currents. They are of separate sex.
Types (selection)
- Cirrhipathes anguina , lives in the Indo-Pacific on reef slopes , becomes more than a meter long and resembles an irregularly wound wire.
- Cirrhipathes leutkeni , lives in the Caribbean, is over two meters long, the upper third is always rolled up in a spiral.
- Cirrhipathes spiralis , lives in the Indo-Pacific at depths from twenty meters, becomes up to six meters long and has the shape of a spiral .
literature
- Erhardt / Moosleitner: Mergus Sea Water Atlas Volume 2 , Mergus-Verlag, Melle, ISBN 3-88244-112-7
Web links
Commons : Cirrhipathes - collection of images, videos and audio files
