Small fire coral colonies encrust patches of the bottom or foreign objects, such as pier pilings, buoy anchor blocks, shallow water rocks and even bits of debris like the bottle immediately below. It seems most likely a small colony of Millepora exaesa but the ID is not certain.
The small colony below encrusted a rock but has numerous barnacles living embedded in the coral skeleton.
Despite its powerful stinging cells, fire coral is subject to predation by a few animals that apparently like "hot" food. The nudibranch Pruvotfolia rhodopos shown below is often found on loose rocks in shallow water eating encrusting Millepora.
The shell Calliostoma fragum was also found at night grazing on large encrusting and columnar seaward reef Millepora colonies.
Created 4 April 2020