JUNE - ALL ABOUT CORAL

June 11

            Gil and I got out for a little water break and we enjoyed looking at coral in addition to the mobile animals of the sea.  We went out beyond the shallow reef and played around on the ledge for a while but had to get back in before the tide was too low to swim in.  
            After two quick classes as intro to coral we had to stop a look. Turns out coral can be animal, plant, and/or mineral. It is quite fascinating and I have to draw the line right now – I can’t do more research until I finish writing the plant part of my book!

 Rice Coral

 Smooth purple coral left, smooth pink coral right, and rice coral behind pink

Cauliflower coral - the one on the left may have ejected its symbiotic algae making it colorless

Not sure if the middle one is tiny blue octo-coral or if it is smooth

            We are just getting used to seeing all over again. When looking for fish, we tend to look past and around the corals.  Parrot fish, trigger fish, file fish, and blennies all eat coral.  Gil was able to document the kind of coral eating done by a file fish and here he is!

Gil Donnelly

Barred Filefish about 15"  

There is a white ring around his mouth but also strong protruding teeth for biting living coral

The little Lavendar Tang on left is about 6"

Gil Donnelly

The tips of the coral have been scraped and eaten, 

probably by the File fish above who was nearby.  

Who would have thought he'd like cauliflower?

            On the way in a few of the Keeltail Needlefish we always see at this reef actually got below me in just a few inches of water.  Dozens of them usually hang just below the surface.

How many do you see?  The shadows are pretty strong

Gil says they look like pick-up-stix