Wild Coral identification

[DragoJustin]

I went scuba diving in the Bahamas and I found a large colony of this coral, I brought a piece home with me and it is a very strange coral. It is one solid chunk and it seems to be a stony coral, but when it is fully opened it almost looks like zoanthid polyp heads. The body tissue seems to be very white and opaque so I know that it is not bleaching, and when the polyps extend it seems to be a brownish yellow color.

Any idea what it is?

 

[ScottR]

Probably a golf ball coral?

 

[AcroNem]

I'll answer again and say it's Palythoa caribaeorum/tuberculosa. Also, maybe not a "bad" person, but you did break the law...

 

[ScottR]

https://reefguide.org/carib/golfballcoral.html

Native to Caribbean, Florida and Bahamas. Looks pretty spot on from pics.

 

[DSC reef]

I believe the golf ball coral has a hard skeleton where the palythoa coral is soft.

 

[reef lover]

My palythoa tuberculosa is quite hard to the touch.

 

[ScottR]

My palythoa tuberculosa is quite hard to the touch.

I’ll just add that the Genus Palythoa is quite extensive. There is so much variation from species to species.

 

[AcroNem]

I've kept both species (tuberculosa and caribaeorum) both feel incredibly hard, but do not have skeletons.

https://reefguide.org/carib/golfballcoral.html

Native to Caribbean, Florida and Bahamas. Looks pretty spot on from pics.

The coral posted doesn't have the visible septa or corallites that golf ball coral does. I'm sticking with my first answer.

 

[ScottR]

I've kept both species (tuberculosa and caribaeorum) both feel incredibly hard, but do not have skeletons.



The coral posted doesn't have the visible septa or corallites that golf ball coral does. I'm sticking with my first answer.

I’ll trust you on this as I’ve kept neither.

 

[Opus]

Looks like the white encrusting zoanthids in the link below. Used to get these as hitchhikers on caribbean rock all the time.

https://reefguide.org/carib/Zoanthids.html

 

[Jmareef1022]

If it's the mat of palys, I believe they carry the most polytoxin out of all palys.

 

[ScottR]

If it's the mat of palys, I believe they carry the most polytoxin out of all palys.

After looking it up, I saw that too;Wideyed