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Related FAQs: TWA Invertebrates, Fishes of the Tropical West
Atlantic, Tropical West Atlantic 2,
Related Articles: Algae, Vascular Plants, Introduction to Fishwatcher's Guide
Series Pieces/Sections, Lachnolaimus
maxiumus/Hogfish, Hogfishes of the Genus Bodianus,
Invertebrates, Algae and Vascular Plants of The Tropical West Atlantic: Bahamas to Brazil,
Part 4
To: Part 1,
Part 2, Part 3,
Part 5, Part 6,
Part 7, Part 8,
Part 9,
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By Bob Fenner
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Gorgonians, Sea Fans |
Gorgonians, Order Gorgonacea: What the deuces are sea fans anyway? Those
scraggly stick things you see in fish stores or hanging on the wall at The Seafood
Restaurant? Well, sort of; those are actually only the vestiges (skeletons) of what were
sea fans. Looking at a human skeleton, have you ever heard, "What a babe/hunk!";
probably not. If you think sea fans are attractive as dead remnants "you ain't seen
nothing yet".
Most everyone has seen sea fans on the
boob tube; even had a sea fan in their hand, Order Gorgonacea, as a skeleton turned into a
piece of jewelry. If you've been diving in tropical seas, you've brushed by them
"waving" in the current.
Encrusting Gorgonians
Family Briareidae:
| Briareum sp. Blainville 1830. Briareum Soft Coral. Family Briareidae.
Colonies to 10 cm. N. Sulawesi (Lembeh Strait) pic. These are
encrusting species with off white tentacles and bright white centers.
Easily cultured in established tanks with strong current and intense
indirect lighting. Important to isolate from stony and soft corals as
these gorgonians can overgrow and smother them. |
 
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| Briareum asbestinum, Corky Sea Finger, Deadman's
Fingers. Colonies made up of one or more erect cylindrical columns, with
large "hairy" polyps, occasionally encrusting. Rods purple to
gray in color, polyps lighter. Images below: An upright colony in the
Bahamas and a more encrusting form in Tobago. Colored purplish rind of
encrusting colony in Bahamas and close-up by Di in Cozumel. |
Family Anthothelidae
| Erythropodium caribaeorum, Encrusting Gorgonian. Form
encrusting mats that look hairy when polyps are extended, smooth, light
colored, like leather when retracted. |
 
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| Diodogorgia nodulifera, Colorful Sea Rod. Occurs as
branched and rod forms. Polyps in cone-shaped calyces on red to
orange rinds/stalks. Polyps white. Bahamas and Tobago pix. |
 
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| Eunicea mammosa, the Swollen-Knob Candelabrum. Tropical
West Atlantic. To about a foot in height. Closely packed tubular calyces.
Candelabrum like in appearance overall. Have
tube-like calyces and candelabra-like colonies. Most are light gold in
color. Exist in many types of reef environments. High to low light, water
movement. Di pix in Cozumel. Below: Aquarium and Cozumel images. |
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| Gorgonia flabellum, the Venus Sea Fan. Large fans of
one plane whose branches are interlaced and roundish to squared off at
angles to the fans surface in profile. Below: Bahamas, Belize close ups
and big colony. |
| Gorgonia ventilana, the Common Sea Fan. Similar to
the Venus Sea Fan (above), but with branches that are flattened in
profile, not roundish. A close up of the skeleton of G. ventilana on the
left, B. flabellum on right in the Bahamas. Both mainly purple, but
varying to whites, yellows, as second close up (Bahamas) shows. |
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| Muricea laxa, Delicate Spiny Sea Rod. Tall colonies
that are bushy, branched in many planes, with hard calcyces (proturberances,
spines...) that extend out and upward with branches. Whitish, yellowish.
Aquarium photos. |
| Muriceopsis flavida, Rough Sea Plume. Bushy colonies
made up of tall branches or many small branchlets that extend in all
directions (not uni-planar). St. Lucia pic. |
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| Plexaura homomalla, Black Sea Rod. Bushy, planar
colonies. Usually branch laterally (versus dichotomously). Have light
brown to yellow polyps against dark brown/black stalks/rinds. Bahamas
pix. |
 
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| Plexaura nutans, Giant Slit-Pore Sea Rod. Tall
colonies with thick stalks, not much branching. When closed, polyp
openings like small open, raised slits. Tobago image. |
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| Pseudoplexaura sp. Porous Sea Rods. Definitive genus
detail are small openings in rind when polyps are retracted. Variable in
appearance, color. Mostly dichotomous asymmetrical branch division. Brown,
grey, tan to light purplish in color. Below: Tobago
and two Cozumel images. |
| Pseudopterygorgia sp., Sea Plumes. Tall (to seven
feet), bushy plumes of branches that are pinnately branching in single
planes. Often purple, other times brown to yellowish. Tobago, Belize and
Cozumel close-up (Di.F) pix. |
| Pseudopterygorgia bipinnata, Bipinnate Sea Plume.
Colonies as single planes of bilaterally arranged branchlets. Usually
purple, sometimes yellow to white. One of the most popular aquarium Sea
Fans due to its beauty, small size (to two feet tall in the wild) and
relative hardiness (when collected, held, shipped properly). Bahamas
photos showing open and closed polyp colonies. See above/top for aquarium
image at title. |
 
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| Pterogorgia citrina, the Yellow Sea Whip. S.O.
Holaxonia, Family Gorgoniidae. Tropical West Atlantic; abundant at times.
Smallish, bushy colonies whose branches are flat, narrow, polyps along
lateral edge . Branches variable in color. Di.F pic in Cozumel. |
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| Pterogorgia guadalupensis, the Grooved-Blade Sea
Whip. Tropical West Atlantic. To two feet in height, branches to 1/2"
diameter. Appears uniplanar in view, with branches bearing a distinct
groove in middle, tapering toward ends. Polyps extend from a common groove
along edges. Di.F pic in Cozumel. |
 
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To: Part 1, Part 2,
Part 3, Part 5,
Part 6, Part 7,
Part 8, Part 9,
Part 10, Part 11,
Part 12, Part 13,
Part 14, Part 15,
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