Pipe organ coral

Care at a glance

The pipe organ coral builds a skeleton of upright, red calcareous tubes standing side by side like the pipes of an organ. From each tube emerges a polyp with eight feathery tentacles, usually grey-green, so the red skeleton stays largely hidden.

It is an octocoral and therefore not a true stony coral, despite that hard skeleton. Give it moderate light, moderate flow and stable parameters; it grows slowly and is one of the few soft corals you can also recognise by its skeleton.

Related species

• GalaxeaGalaxea fascicularis
• Snake polypsIsaurus tuberculatus
• Stick polypsAcrozoanthus australiae
• HydnophoraHydnophora sp.
• Yellow polypsParazoanthus spp.
• Pavona (cactus coral)Pavona cactus