Often scuba divers focus on tiny critters, schools of fish, or jumbo-sized creatures like whales, dolphins, and sharks. This leaves corals to get lumped together under a single term ‘coral reef’ which is far too general to describe the hundreds of individual coral species waiting to be discovered. 珊瑚s are the foundation of the marine environment and it’s a rewarding experience to scuba dive with the intention of looking for corals. We’ve put together this list of 20 corals which you can start looking for while diving in Indonesia. You will also find these corals throughout the entire Indo-Pacific.
Huge colony of Lobophyllia corals in the Bunaken National Park – Sulawesi Indonesia 珊瑚s are a diverse group of animals with hundreds of individual species. The reason I love searching for corals is that each coral can look vastly different than corals of the same species so even if you’ve seen a coral once, you never know where a biggest brighter colony is hiding. 珊瑚growth is influenced by the location and conditions it is found growing on the reef. So corals living in a high light or high flow area will look different than corals found below 20 meters. For example a branching coral found living in high-flow or surge area will focus energy on creating a solid encrusting base before it begins to forms branches. The same coral found living in a shallow lagoon with very little current would have a smaller base with more branches.
左侧的珊瑚在高电流区域的墙壁边缘生长，并且在岩石上包裹着很多组织，几乎没有树枝。右侧的珊瑚在浅的低电流礁中生长，并具有许多分支的紧凑形状。然而，这两个珊瑚都是相同的物种，它们具有短几乎三角形的分支。
珊瑚Genus Identification
This shape-shifting ability can be confusing for some who are just learning to identify corals species. If this is your first time trying to identify corals, it is best to start at the genus level before trying to identify coral species. 例如，Montiporais a common genus of coral from Indonesia.Montipora可以从嵌入珊瑚表面的微小珊瑚岩中识别出珊瑚。小开花息肉通常总是可见的，通常与珊瑚组织不同。珊瑚的表面被短的平滑山脊或凸起覆盖，这些山脊或凸起松散地连接或完全断开。
When you have the visual image in your head ofMontiporait is easy to spot this abundant genus regardless of the individual species. ForMontipora个别物种,有五十多个,re encrusting, platting, or branching. To identify this coral to the species level you will need to take wide-angle pictures of the colony and close-ups of the corallites, you may also need to measure the corallite size to get a perfect match. *Montiporacan be confused withPorites它也有小的珊瑚岩，看起来像珊瑚表面的毛孔。然而，Porites, for the most part, lacks the smooth bumpy ridges characteristic ofMontipora.
珊瑚鉴定Basics
下面列出的珊瑚是每个属的一般表示。这些珊瑚类型中的许多物种看起来与我的照片不同。此列表本来是您珊瑚探索的起点。 If you are just starting out the best thing to do is look for common traits shared amongst a certain genus of corals. Start with memorizing a few corals to recognize underwater and scuba diving becomes a never-ending treasure hunt! If you want to learn more about basic coral biology and helpful term for coral identification check out my article on Scuba Diver Life珊瑚生物学i&珊瑚生物学II
Blasstomussa是一个小的神秘珊瑚，可以在muck divinghabitats, or on dark walls, and caves. There are two species of Blasstomussa, one has large polyps (pictured above) which are 2-3cm or 1 inch in diameter. The second species has polyps which are smaller around 1cm in diameter. The polyps of both species are smooth in the center near the oral disk becoming bumpy and inflated near the rim. Blastomussa corals can be bright reds, green, purple, pinks, orange, and some colonies can have three or more colors in a single polyp.
2. Catalyphyllia
Catalyphyllia is a stony coral with elegant tentacles, it’s no wonder the common name for this coral is the Elegance coral. The skeleton of this coral is a meandering shape and can be found resting on the seafloor usually in muck habitats. Catalyphyllia is a pale color with striped pattern in the center of the polyp with pink, purple, blue and green accents. Catalyphyllia corals can be up to 30 cm or 12 inches across and tentacles a few cm long.
Euphylliacorals are easy to spot because of their hammer shaped polyps. The skeleton can be branching or meandering forming long deep walls. However, there are around nine species of Euphyllia and only three have this type of polyp. The other types of Euphyllia have long tentacles covered in bumps like frog eggs, or long polyps like a torch. Learn to spots this coral Euphyllia ancora and you’ll be on your way to becoming a master Euphyllia spotter.
Heliofungia might look like a sea anemone, but this coral has a hard skeleton shaped like a disk. Heliofungia has long tentacles are most often green or yellow and can have a striped pattern on the coral tissue. Take a closer look between the tentacles and if you’re lucky you could find a small white pipefish that only lives with the Heliofungia coral.
8. Isopora
Isopora palifera无疑是其中一个最知名的珊瑚拉ughout the Indo-Pacific. If you are just starting to learn coral identification Isopora is one of the easiest corals to spot. Isopora forms robust colonies with thick blades, and the entire colony is covered in smooth, rounded corallites. The blades are upright stretching to the surface and the tops of each blade are normally a pale color.
9. Lobophyllia
叶叶is a common coral, however, colonies of this coral can grow to extraordinary size. Lobophyllia colonies are made up of large fleshy polyps that grow together like lobes. The polyps can be compact and barely cover the corals skeleton or they can be large and fleshy covering the skeleton like a carpet. Lobophyllia can be found in all sort of colors with some common species being grey, brown, white and red.
Mycediumis one of the first corals I learned to identify. You can easily recognize this coral by the cup or nose-shaped corallites that always face towards the edges of the colony. Mycediums will have a large corallite in the center of the colony, and the coral grows outwards from that spot. There are five species of Mycedium and the easiest to identify are Mycedium elephantotus which has the largest corallites and can cover large sections of reef. The second is Mycedium robokaki which forms plates with small corallites in a contrasting color from the coral tissue.
12. Oxypora
Oxypora can be easy to spot if you know what to look for. This coral forms thin plates in a variety of colors. There are five species of Oxypora all with small poorly developed corallites. This coral is similar to Echinopora, Mycedium, and Echinopyllia, but while they look similar from far away the corallites of Oxypora are the smallest of all these thin plating species.
13. Pachyceris
Pachyseris is an interesting coral that has narrow ridges a few millimeters above the surface of the colony. The ridges can be long and narrow or short and contorted. There are five species of Pachyseris and this coral can be plating, encrusting or branching. Something you can find large areas covered in thin plating Pachyseris. This coral lacks are corallite structure and instead has septa-costea which run perpendicular to the narrow ridges.
Symphyllia is a distinct coral with wide ridges with valleys around 2-3 cm (1 inch) wide. The coral tissue is thick and hides the skeleton. Valleys can be a different color for the ridges, and extra special colonies have a third color for the polyps.
