Coral (Annella mollis), parque nacional Ras Muhammad, Egipto, 2022-03-28, DD 108

About this work

Coral (Annella mollis), Ras Muhammad National Park, Red Sea, Egypt. This species of soft coral live in areas in the Indo-West Pacific, including the Red Sea, around 12 to 18 meters deep, in lower reef slopes, on rocks and sand substrates. It's a very large gorgonian, which can measure up to 2 meters in wingspan, in the shape of a more or less regular fan. It deploys its lace of ramification in the same plane, perpendicular to the current, a plane which can however undergo curvatures during the life of the animal, and sometimes be doubled by independent branches. The main branches are cylindrical and stocky, and the secondary branches anastomose easily, from it emerge small retractile polyps. This animal feeds on plankton, caught in the current thanks to the many polyps that punctuate its arms. Like all gorgonians, Annella mollis forms female and male colonies, which on hormonal signal dispersed in the water will eject their gametes at the same time into the current, where fertilization and the planktonic phase of the egg will take place, then the larva. It is a slow growing species, and can probably live for more than a century.