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Mushroom Coral Research Paper

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The Kingdom Animalia that is where a little coral known commonly as Mushroom Coral or scientifically known as Fungia is located. The region the are found in Western Central Pacific, in New Guinea, the Philippines, Papua, The Indo-West Pacific, the Northwest Pacific in Taiwan and from the Gulf of Alden to Seychelles in the Western Indian Ocean. The Coral comes in an array of colors, if you can imagine a color the Mushroom Coral most likely comes in that color. This means it can blend in with any type of environment due to its ability to be any color, but most commonly are purple or green. This species has been widely popular in captivity and many people with aquariums, which is very good because Mushroom Coral have been placed on the IUCN Red List …show more content…

They have a long, flat mouth in the center of their body. They usually inhabit flat surfaces in the water, and can be found on rubble or soft substrates and can be find at depths from 1 meter to 25 meters underwater. Their tentacles are extended all the time which release a mucus with a toxin that can kill other coral and fish if threatened. The main source of nutrition the coral receives is a symbiotic relationship with bacteria that live in it's mouth but it can kill and digest other animals if needed, their tentacles will help feed the organism by pulling in small morsels of food and bring it to the mouth of the coral. Mushroom coral can reproduce sexually or asexually, if they reproduce sexually, sperm and eggs are released into the water, when the egg is fertilized the larvae will settle on a substrate overnight. if it reproduces asexually then a new polyp will grow off the parent and anchor itself via a stalk which gives the organism its name, when it gets mature enough the stalk will dissolve and the new coral will sink to the bottom of the water and is now mobile, it will now continue to grow and

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