Galaxy coral
Galaxea fascicularis
Valid name (WoRMS, AphiaID 207366, checked 2026-10-31).
- English
- Galaxy coral
- Scientific
- Galaxea fascicularis
- Dhivehi
- No recorded Dhivehi name
- Group
- Hard corals
- Depth and habitat
- Reef-associated, recorded from 3 to 25 m
- IUCN status
- LC · Least ConcernLeast Concern (LC), assessed 2023CITES Appendix II
Description
A galaxy coral: a colony of many small, separate, tube-shaped cups with sharp, star-like rims standing up above the surface. By day the short tentacles are often out, sometimes with white tips. Colonies are brown, green, grey or cream and form rounded mounds or encrusting sheets on reef slopes and in lagoons. It is among the hard corals with the most iNaturalist records from the Maldives.
In the Maldives
Recorded from the Maldives: museum specimens (n=14, USNM); iNaturalist research-grade observations in the Maldives (n=45); literature records via OBIS (Hexacorallians of the World (Fautin 2013), IndOBIS); SeaLifeBase Maldives checklist.
Sources
- sealifebase.se /summary/Galaxea-fascicularis.html
- marinespecies.org /aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=207366
- commons.wikimedia.org /wiki/File:Coral_(Galaxea_fascicularis),_mar_Rojo,_Egipto,_2023-04-18,
Dhivehi name source: No species-level Dhivehi name found in Dhivehi Wikipedia, SeaLifeBase (country: Maldives) or MRS/MMRI invertebrate publications.