Blue coral

Heliopora coerulea

Corals and anemones
IUCN: Least concern

Usual depth12–46 m
Water temperature10–30 °C
Best monthsApril
How commonOccasional

About this species

Blue coral is a species of colonial coral. It is the only octocoral known to produce a massive skeleton. This skeleton is formed of aragonite, similar to that of scleractinia. Individual polyps live in tubes within the skeleton and are connected by a thin layer of tissue over the outside of the skeleton.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Blue coral”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 2 records
February: 2 records
March: 4 records
April: 180 records
May: 89 records
June: 8 records
July: 6 records
August: 16 records
September: 3 records
October: 11 records
November: 4 records
December: 4 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 12–46 m · Deepest record: 203.5 m

0–10 m: 30 records
10–20 m: 11 records
20–30 m: 14 records
30–40 m: 99 records
40–50 m: 153 records
50–60 m: 4 records
60–70 m: 0 records
70–80 m: 0 records
80–90 m: 0 records
90–100 m: 0 records
100–110 m: 0 records
110+ m: 2 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 10–30 °C

10–12 °C: 1 records
12–14 °C: 0 records
14–16 °C: 0 records
16–18 °C: 0 records
18–20 °C: 0 records
20–22 °C: 2 records
22–24 °C: 0 records
24–26 °C: 11 records
26–28 °C: 15 records
28–30 °C: 328 records

Names and classification

English: Blue coral, Blue fire coral, blue coral, blue fire coral

Names in 5 more languages

German: Blaue Feuerkoralle, Blaue Koralle
Spanish: Coral azul
Japanese: アオサンゴ
Thai: ปะการังสีน้ำเงิน
Simplified Chinese: 藍珊瑚

Other scientific names: Heliopora caerulea, Heliopora meandrina, Heliopora sparsipora, Helipora coerulea, Madrepora coerulea, Millepora caerulea, Millepora coerulea

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
360 open-data records from 1766 to 2018.

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