Physical Description

The colonies of Tubipora musica, unlike any other soft coral, consists of lots of hard vertical tubes of calcium carbonate with a single tentacled polyp inside each tube. The whole colony can reach up to a meter across, occupying significants patches on the reef.  Each idividual polyps are normaly a few milimeters long.




The skeleton of this soft coral is bright red colored and the tubes are connected to each other horizontally, through a system of canals. Each tube measures 2mm in diameter.




Each polyp has eight feather-like grey tentacles, which can obscure the skeleton when outspreaded. Each tentacle contais several pinnae on its margin. The oral disc is surrounded by the tentacles.