#Melithaea

[colorsoutofearth]

Spotted seahorse (Hippocamopus kuda) among branching lace coral (Stylaster spp.) and sea fan (Melithaea spp.)

Photo by David Fleetham

[snototter]

Knotted fan coral (Melithaea ochracea) off the coast of Southern Leyte, Philippines

by Kary Mar

[marineexplorer]

Sea fans (gorgonians) #marineexplorer by John Turnbull Via Flickr: I see many sea fans are fans of sea fans, see? They're hard to ID like most octocorals, but I think these are all species endemic to southern Australia; bottom left Sphaerokodisis australis and the others, colour variants of Melithaea zimmeri. Middle top might be another Melithaea species as it's from Julian Rocks

[boudhabar]

 Melithaea ochracea 

[weird-bio-facts]

Not So Soft Coral, Vol 6

This is Melithaea ochracea, the red sponge coral, and beyond just looking cool, the non-photosynthetic melithaea is also one of only a handfull of genuses suitable for hosting these:

Pygmy seahorses, cute as heck, but very selective about where they’ll live, beyond that and their use in jewelry very little else is known about this genus except that, of course, humans are killing them off in the wild, but since it does grow rather fast it is considered sustainable.

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[boudhabar]

Scarlet Sea Fan Coral (Melithaea sp.)