divepix - Colorful Sea Rod

Colorful Sea Rod

Aspect:	Bushy formation of colonies of irregularly shaped and knotty red or bright orange branches from which a myriad white, lace-like polyps extend (Nodulifera, in the latin name, means knotty). Also known as "Finger Sea Fan". Calyces are entirely white down the coloured rind of the branch.
Population:	Not widespread. Traditionally put in the order of the Gorgonacea, that name is now replaced with "Alcyonacea"
Notable feature:	Unlike most other gorgonians, the several samples herewith displayed do not develop in a roughly single plane, but rathermore randomly into a bouquet. Yet they were photographed in two different and fairly distant spots. Tentacles deploy highly visible pinnules.
Environment:	Open, well exposed sites - in the case of Guadeloupe' West Coast, so far only seen on two wrecks, the Gustavia (40 metres ) and the Augustin Fresnel, 30 metres).
Behaviour:	-

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