The color of the Coral specimen is white with very minute pores around the body with irregular horizontal lines . Certain type of Barnacles are also attached over it along with a tube building polychaeta shell (broken). Is this a non photosynthetic type of coral ?
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Krishnamoorthy_Venkataraman
it could be from the family Dwndrophylliidae
see corals of the world vol.2
Looks a lot like Tubastrea, likely micrantha as it is branching. Where are you, what depth? T. micrantha likes deep water, or else quite high nutrient, cold, high current conditions ....
The photos show a dead colony of Dendrophylliidae, a family represented by many species in the Indian Ocean. The specimen in question is NOT a Tubastraea, it has a different arrangement of septa. It may fit the genus Dendrophyllia. I feel able to affirm that this coral did not have zooxanthellae. What are the locality and depth?
Dear All,
Thanking you very much for such a great discussion about the species.
I have seen other specimens also and found that there is non evidence of photosynthesis. This specimen is collected from 20 meter depth from north eastern part of the Bay of Bengal, India.
It is a dendrophyllia, and more than the scleractinia attached to the base of the octocoral it seems probable that the octocoral settled on the skeleton of the scleractinia...anyway the result is the same...
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