Popular corals in the wild!

[Wreef]

So cool to see some of these corals that we see in our tank in their natural habitat! It’s humbling to see such large colonies in the wild, and how they cohabitate with others

in Florida and the key, we aren’t fortunate to have very many beautiful corals that appear even in other areas of the Caribbean. But if you look hard enough, you can find some cool stuff and some beautiful fish!

 

[lemonade]

Some pics of wild Ricordea and a common Condylactis

 

[reddogf5]

Thanks for posting these, it is always cool to see coral in the wild. And you can feel much better about the lack of color in your tank, just claim you are going for the "natural" look

 

[Dennis Cartier]

I thought I would upload a video of the stag colony I posted earlier. Good thing I did as I noticed had not saved any of the photos and videos from last year's trip on to my home NAS or the cloud.

Sorry about the shaky cam.


Dennis

 

[CanuckReefer]

Not corals, but tangs n wrasses

Tiger Beach

Was this with Neal Watson's? I did the Great Hammerhead dive with them a couple years back in Bimini. Tiger Beach is next on my list. Will post a few from Hammer dive...

 

[CanuckReefer]

The Florida Keys are great because they're super accessible.

Bonaire, off the coast of South America, is known as the shore diving capital of the world, so perfect if you don't like boats!

Yep , also Curacao. Did quite a bit of shore diving there. Rented a vehicle for a few days and ventured to various spots on the island.

 

[vanpire]

Keys

Where in the keys were you able to see these? Awesome. Love the pics.

 

[Mr_Knightley]

Again Bora Bora, not sure what this is

My DP, again from same area,

Believe it or not, that top photo is actually a species of cushion starfish! I've never seen one quite that round before, it's pretty amazing.

 

[hds4216]

Believe it or not, that top photo is actually a species of cushion starfish! I've never seen one quite that round before, it's pretty amazing.

That's awesome!

 

[vanpire]

Small whale shark

 

[vanpire]

Sandbar in the Philippines.

 

[BradB]

I've been certified a long time, but only got 1 awesome trip to the Bahamas, then Covid shut everything down.

The relatively reasonable cost of seeing corals as large as your car for a whole week really makes you question $100+ for a pencil eraser sized Acropora.

People say too blue light is unnatural but I know better.

 

[jabeuy]

Super shaky video of some snorkeling in the Philippines.
Tons of acros, walls and walls of corals

 

[Futuretotm]

Not mine, this is maayafushi in the maldives pre-bleaching/all dead now
Anyone know of a place like this anywhere in the world? Shallow water acro galore?

 

[Dark_Knightt]

Super shaky video of some snorkeling in the Philippines.
Tons of acros, walls and walls of corals

Is there anything cooler than wild occys?

 

[jmichaelh7]

Hey all! Thought it would be cool to make a thread on some popular corals in the wild. They are some really interesting ones, and I think it's really neat to see some popular species in their natural habitats.

First, here's a pretty famous one. This is a torch coral at low tide. Taken in the Maldives. One thing you'll notice in these pics: without the blues of our light systems, corals tend to appear a lot less colorful. The natural sunlight changes their appearance.

Here's a really cool pic of a mass coral spawning event that occurred in 2019 on the great barrier reef. Scientists photographed it and collected samples of the sex cells so that they can raise them in labs. This gives them info on the corals lifecycle and development, and helps them find ways to better protect the reefs.

Here are some older ones, this is an elegance coral, Catalaphyllia jardinei. Once common in the hobby and known as fairly hardy LPS, most now come with a fatal disease known unofficially as Elegance Coral Syndrome, which greatly limits their lifespan. A contributing factor could be that our tanks are not the ideal habitat for them - most come from deeper, more silty water. They are rarely exposed to the bright lights and cleaner waters of shallow reefs.

Remember how I said that corals are typically less colorful under sunlight? Well, the sun coral and many other related corals prove an exception to that rule. The sun coral, which is unique in that it is non-photosynthetic and relies on catching plankton and other crustaceans in its tentacles. They grow huge on many reefs.

Here's a unique photo - an urban coral reef exposed at low tide. This is off the coast off Pulau Semakau, an island. In the distance, you can see Singapore. At low tide, one will find the island as well as the waters around it teeming with life, though there have been concerns over pollution of the surrounding water. The Singapore government, however, tightly regulates environmental practices in the area, in contrast to many Indonesian islands.

Here's a healthy patch of Acropora millepora, the purple one in the middle, as well as various other SPS, at a diving spot in the Pacific. The mille has the classic shape of its species, but which is very difficult to replicate in the aquarium.

From the same source, here is a large Bubble coral, Plerogyra sinuosa. Notably, this colony, though extremely large, has suffered some damage, as evident but the large hold in the skeleton on the side. It's possible this is from an anchor of a boat.

Here's another photo of SPS, this time the critically endangered staghorn coral, Acropora cervicornis. Native to the Carribean, this coral faces huge challenges. Most of us will never keep this coral, its collection is essentially banned, except for extremely specific research and conservation purposes, by international law.

Here is a large patch of anemones, species unknown, hosting an anemonefish.

Here are multiple bubble tip anemones growing in the Marshall Islands. They are hosted by Amphiprion melanopus. Notably, this photo was taken in 2008, and the same reef suffered multiple bleaching events in 2008, 2013, 2014, and 2016. Many corals and anemones did not survive, and these reefs are a shadow of their former selves.

Also from reefbuilders, here we can see some scolymias, specifically Caribbean scolies. Scolymia cubensis the smaller of the two species has a lower profile and often found on the side of rocks. It looks to have a smoother texture around the exterior of the disk. Scolymia lacera is the bigger flashier coral with visible skeletal teeth around the edge of the coral, on the left. These were both found in the Honduras.

Switching gears to LPS, here are some huge swathes of hammer corals, these being the wall hammer Fimbriaphyllia ancora. Formerly Euphyllia, hammers and frogspawn/octospawn were reclassified in 2018. These huge corals could almost be considered reefs by themselves! They make anything we have in captivity pail in comparison.

Here's a variety of goniopora surrounded by leather corals. Huge fields of leather emerge where the conditions are right, but sometimes other corals fight their way to the top and manage to gain a foothold among the leathers, as these gonis have done. This is why coral warfare happens! They have to fight for their real estate.

Here's something really unique. No, these corals aren't bleached. These are deepwater small polyp stony corals. Yes, they exist! They receive no sunlight and are feed on plankton. They're exceptionally slow growers. Your fast growing acro can gain 10-20 cm in a year, but these guys grow just 0.1 cm in a year. They are extremely vulnerable to damage from deep sea trawling and other environmental damage.

Finally, back to the traditional reef picture. Here is a rainbow of corals found in the Pacific off the Great Barrier Reef. Unfortunately, due to bleaching events, these corals are also severely damaged in the present. Their beauty remains only in a few photographs.

So there ends our brief tour of corals in the wild. You may notice that many of them suffer from environmental threats. These are very real and are impacting almost every reef on the planet. If you can, please check out or donate to a reef conservation agency, such as https://coralreef.noaa.gov. They need our help!

this is awesome. Are you able to take pieces and bring them home to your reef tank?

 

[CubsFan]

Thanks everyone that has posted their wild reef photos. This thread is awesome. Missed the start. Now following.

 

[ErhanS]

Not mine, this is maayafushi in the maldives pre-bleaching/all dead now
Anyone know of a place like this anywhere in the world? Shallow water acro galore?

Much of Indonesia and the Red Sea is still alive with fields of acropora and tons of other marine life. It’s very depressing to see these beautiful places reduced to piles of rubble

 

[ErhanS]

My photos from back when I was diving…
(2019)

 

[DeniseAndy]

Very nice photos!