scales & tails fishfa Posted April 25, 2009 Report Share Posted April 25, 2009 Hi there, On Monday the 20th I went for my first dive ever. It was awesome and we saw a heap of cool things but that is a different story. One thing that my dive instructor showed me was a coral. It was a large ( about the length of an arm ) soft coral that was a dark maroon-brown colour. The amazing thing was that if you touch it or sweap a current over it, it instanly ( and I really do mean instantly ) turned completly white!!!!!! And about 30 seconds later it would instanly turn back into it's maroony-brown colour! We have a few theories on WHY it may do this, but we can't find WHAT it is in any books or on the internet. Have you guys ever heard of it? Could this be an intirely new species? :-? The dive was 12 meters deep, 28 degrees celcious (awesome ), about 800m of the coast of Matamanoa Island, Fiji. There were about 5 of these corals bunched up together and we only saw the in that one spot, no were else! Danny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A-town... Posted April 25, 2009 Report Share Posted April 25, 2009 wow sounds awesome but i am of no help sorry lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zev Posted April 25, 2009 Report Share Posted April 25, 2009 Without a pic it would be hard to say, but I would hazard a guess that the base colour of the coral is white, and the maroon is the colour of the polyp extensions, when you brush over it the polyps retract and the coral appears white. Someone else may have a better theory or has seen one and may be able to help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie extreme Posted April 26, 2009 Report Share Posted April 26, 2009 i would say a cladiella sp by the sounds of it. http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm ... 3&aid=2302. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navarre Posted April 26, 2009 Report Share Posted April 26, 2009 Hi Danny, welcome to the Under Water World. diving is great. As an instructor ( i think there are a few of us in here) I cant recomend a better pass time outside of the fish room. rememebr tho that the two most important thing when going down are to breathe in and to breathe out. No matter how spectacular the scenery. Would agree with Zev without a photo. You will notice the clams do it as well and if you night dive you might see some of the hard corals doing it when you put your light on them Navarre Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tHEcONCH Posted April 26, 2009 Report Share Posted April 26, 2009 Without a pic it would be hard to say, but I would hazard a guess that the base colour of the coral is white, and the maroon is the colour of the polyp extensions, when you brush over it the polyps retract and the coral appears white. Yep, that is exactly what is happening - its a simple defensive reaction to protect its polyps. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scales & tails fishfa Posted April 27, 2009 Author Report Share Posted April 27, 2009 Hello again. Sorry no photo. My camara can't go underwater. Hi Cookie extreme. This coral sound "similar" to the shape but denfinatly not the colour. To my memory it wasn't covered in poylps. Only clusters of them at the end of the branches ( much like a kenya tree leather ). So the alge in the "skin" of the coral would turn white and not just around the poylp areas. There was absolutly no sign of white before frighting the coral. Then again this is my memory. Can't always rely on it. :oops: I will contact my dive instructor and see if she can get a few photos. Mind you, she lives in fiji and doesn't have the best of internet.... :lol: Thanks for all your effort in helping me discover the identity of this "body between the chalk lines"! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolliolli Posted April 28, 2009 Report Share Posted April 28, 2009 yes saw this in fiji with when out on a dive, i agree that it is likely to just be the polyp extension/retraction that you are viewing. i have a quick 2 sec video of it, but its not good enough quality or zoomed in close enough to be worth posting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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