Tag Archives: Coral

 Hi friends, good news again, it’s pouring rain at this very moment!! Yes, we are finally getting some much needed rains and it’s safe to say our prayers have been answered!! I did a walk this morning at 7:00 with Aimee, the dogs and our friend Mandy and we could see it was pouring on the North coast but it didn’t look like it was going to come this direction, boy was I ever wrong! For the last 30 minutes it has been an all out tropical downpour which is hitting the roof so hard you can hardly hear anything else, lucky Curacao! Today I have a few examples of one of the coolest, most beautiful stony corals on the reef called Sunray Lettuce Coral or Helioceris cucullata for you coral experts out there. Colonies of Sunray Lettuce Coral form thin plates that encrust and contour over the substrate, occasionally with lumpy surfaces as seen above. Colonies edges extend outward from substrate, are often undulated and generally rounded. This coral may also form in overlapping, shingle-like plates like you see in these two photos. With polyps retracted, corallite pits appear in honeycomb pattern. Colors are normally brown, red-brown or even gray with polyp centers white or green, edges of the coral are always lighter. These very fragile corals inhabit sloping reef faces, attaching to and encrusting the rocky substrate. Leaf, plate and sheet corals often form structures with virtually identical shapes and sizes and often grow mixed together overlapping one another. Distinguishing the different species requires close observation of the valley and ridge structure not to mention polyp placement and septa detail, always take a close-up shot if you have a camera. have a wonderful day, I’m headed out to do a dive as it just stopped raining. Barry MORE: Sunray Lettuce Coral, Helioceris cucullata, Stony Corals… More:

Continue reading →