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How does it look like?
The polyps are white and have eight tentacles. Like all corals, they form colonies that can reach up to 20 centimeters in height, although nowadays it is difficult to see such large specimens. The polyps can retract and then it takes on a completely different appearance, like a little red tree full of small holes where the polyps are hidden. The usual coloration is dark red, but it can be paler or even have a pinkish hue. It is a polyp that lives attached to the substrate of the seabed and through segregations calcifies a tubular skeleton, which is covered with an organic crust with countless holes, where polyps appear equipped with a digestive cavity and eight retractable tentacles, which are capable of retaining nutrients from the water.
Where does it live?
It normally lives on rocky substrates where there is low or almost no light, and where there are underwater currents that provide food. It is normally found between 30 and 150 meters deep in most of the western Mediterranean basin and the eastern Atlantic.
How does it feed?
From the small holes of the red calcareous skeleton, the polyp takes out 8 tentacles with which it feeds. All polyps are carnivorous, so it waits with its tentacles outstretched until a microscopic prey, a plankton larva or a small piece of an animal that can be swallowed, falls out.
How does it reproduce?
Red coral polyps can form gems from which larvae are born and once fertilized, they drift until they form a new colony. The growth of the skeleton is very slow and depends on parameters such as light, temperature, nutrients and bathymetry.
Curiosities
· Its fishing dates back to ancient times, the Greeks and Romans were already catching it in apnea.
· Ancestrally it was attributed medicinal properties against epilepsy, caries or impotence. Properties similar to Viagra were attributed to it when it was treated by alchemists.
· Some civilizations still adorn their dead with coral pendants, due to its magical effects, or use it as an amulet. However, its ornamental use is the predominant one.
· The growth of the skeleton is very slow (3-5 millimeters per year) and depends on parameters such as light, temperature, nutrients and the bathymetric ratio.
· In Catalonia in 2018 a 10 year fishing ban was declared.
Taxonomy
Phylum: Cnidaria, Subphylum: Anthozoa, Infraphylum: Octocorallia, Ordre: Gorgonacea, Suborder: Scleraxonia, Family: Corallidae, Genera: Corallium |
