Maldives Marine Life

Marine life of Maldivian waters

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Torch coral
No photo available
Photo: Ryan Boren / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (view on Wikimedia Commons)Coral photo: species not verifiable from image.

Torch coral

Euphyllia glabrescens

Valid name (WoRMS, AphiaID 207617, checked 2026-10-31).

English
Torch coral
Scientific
Euphyllia glabrescens
Dhivehi
No recorded Dhivehi name
Group
Hard corals
Family
Euphylliidae (torch, hammer and galaxy corals)
Depth and habitat
Reef-associated, recorded from 0 to 40 m
IUCN status
LC · Least ConcernLeast Concern (LC), assessed 2023CITES Appendix II

Description

A torch coral: its long, fleshy tentacles with rounded, often pale or green tips stay out by day and sway in the water, hiding the skeleton. Colonies are usually brown or green and grow on reef slopes and in lagoons. The tentacles can sting nearby corals that grow too close.

In the Maldives

Recorded from the Maldives: museum specimens (n=6); iNaturalist research-grade observations in the Maldives (n=7); literature records via OBIS (Hexacorallians of the World (Fautin 2013), IndOBIS); SeaLifeBase Maldives checklist.

Sources

Dhivehi name source: No species-level Dhivehi name found in Dhivehi Wikipedia, SeaLifeBase (country: Maldives) or MRS/MMRI invertebrate publications.