What phylum is Octocorallia?
Cnidaria
Octocorallia/Phylum
Where is soft coral found?
Soft corals are found worldwide, primarily in tropical or subtropical waters. Soft corals do not produce reefs but may live on them. They may also be found in the deep sea.
Why are soft corals called Octocorallia?
This class is divided into two subgroups: the Octocorallia – so named because they have 8 tentacles around the mouth – include sea fans, sea pens and soft corals; the Hexacorallia – with multiples of 6 tentacles around the mouth – include stony corals, black corals, sea anemones, and others.
Do all soft corals contain sclerites?
Reefs are ecosystems derived from biological organisms. They predominantly consist of cemented stony corals made of calcium carbonate. In contrast, the tissues of soft corals contain sclerites, which look like tiny pins or porcupine needles.
What Cnidarian subclass are Octocorals found in?
Octocorallia (also known as octocorals, or in earlier times “Alcyonaria”) are a subclass of the class Anthozoa, in the phylum Cnidaria. They are sessile polyp-bearing animals with a mobile larval phase that are only found in marine systems.
Is sea fan a soft coral?
Alcyonacea, or soft corals, are an order of corals. Common names for subsets of this order are sea fans and sea whips; others are similar to the sea pens of related order Pennatulacea.
What does soft coral look like?
Soft corals, like sea fingers and sea whips, are soft and bendable and often resemble plants or trees. These corals do not have stony skeletons and are non-reef-building corals—instead, they grow wood-like cores and fleshy rinds for protection.
Are fire corals octocorals?
Hydrocorals are found in all the same habitat types that stony corals are found in. The most common kinds of hydrocorals are the fire corals. These types of corals are similar in appearance to octocorals and form a skeleton made of protein, however the skeletal structure of black corals is hard and inflexible.
What Cnidarian subclass are octocorals found in?
Are soft corals LPS or SPS?
Most species of LPS corals require moderate to low lighting whereas the species of soft coral can range anywhere from high to low lighting. SPS coral requires a high direct water flow while LPS and soft coral only require a low-medium indirect water flow.
What is the common name for subclass Alcyonaria?
Octocorallia
Octocorallia (also known as octocorals, or in earlier times “Alcyonaria”) are a subclass of the class Anthozoa, in the phylum Cnidaria. They are sessile polyp-bearing animals with a mobile larval phase that are only found in marine systems.
How are octocorals different from hard corals?
The polyps of soft corals have eight feathery tentacles, which is why they are also known as octocorals. One way to tell the difference between soft corals and hard (stony) corals is that the polyps of hard corals have six tentacles, which are not feathery.
What kind of reproduction does an octocoral have?
Asexual reproduction is clearly important for population growth in some alcyonacean corals, however the vast majority of octocorals are known to reproduce only sexually. Most species are gonochoristic (Table 1), although hermaphroditism has been recorded in several Xenid “soft corals” (Table 1).
What kind of life does the Octocorallia have?
Deep-sea isidid with oocytes visible along axis. The Subclass Octocorallia represents a geographically and morphologically diverse group of cnidarians for which basic life history, including reproductive biology, is poorly known in most species.
What kind of organism is a soft coral?
These corals have a flexible, sometimes leathery, appearance. Although many resemble plants, they are actually animals. Soft corals are colonial organisms – they are formed of colonies of polyps. The polyps of soft corals have eight feathery tentacles, which is why they are also known as octocorals.