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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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Bob Fenner | 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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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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