Grooved Brain Coral, Diploria labyrinthiformis

by | Dec 10, 2015 | Reef, Science | 0 comments

BAR-Hi guys, I have a hard to find colony of Grooved Brain coral, Diploria labyrinthiformis for you all today that I found on the sandy slopes of Klein Curacao.  Diploria labyrinthiformis, known by the common name grooved brain coral, is a species of stony coral in the family Mussidae.

Found in tropical areas of the west Atlantic Ocean, it has a familiar, maze-like appearance.

This species of reef-building coral has a hemispherical, brain-like shape with a brown, yellow, or gray color. It has characteristic deep, interconnected double-valleys. These polyp-bearing valleys are each separated by grooved ambulacral ridges. There may be a difference in color between the valleys and the grooves.

Diploria labyrinthiformis can grow upward at a rate of approximately 3.5 millimeters per year, achieving about 2 metres (6.6 feet) in diameter. During its planktonic larval stage, the coral has locomotion. After that time, it becomes permanently sessile.

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