We’ve always read that certain species ofDendronephthyasoft corals can grow to massive proportions but it really took seeing a colossal one in person to appreciate what this means. While diving for theFluval Sea Flores Expedition，我们遇到了一个特别巨大的殖民地Dendronephthyathat is about half the size of a full grown man!
这个巨大的规模Dendronephthya在这些照片中，柔软的珊瑚很难理解，因为栖息地几乎没有其他珊瑚可供参考。这种美丽的米高柔软生活在沙滩上，带有非常柔和的坡度和不太凝结的水流，这使得甚至不止于拍摄这张照片。有趣的是，这个珊瑚距离其中一个只有几十码most beautifulMycedium圣杯珊瑚we’ve ever seen, underwater or in an aquarium.
While we weren’t able to get scale for the size of the entireDendronephthyacolony, we did manage to take a great picture of our adult man hands being unable to grasp even half the ccircumference of the trunk of this impressive colony. Take a look at our fingers being dwarfed while trying to wrap around the trunk, then look back at the images of the full colony and try to picture how small we would have looked if we could have taken a selfie with it.
We’re still a long way from cracking theDendronephthya代码but if we ever do, will we ever be able to grow carnation corals anywhere near this big? How much food does a giant soft coral even need on a daily basis? What kind of crazy mass water movement does it take to sustain such a large passive filter feeder? We’ll be happy to grow carnation corals of any size in our aquariums but there’s definitely some show-stopping coral colonies in our aquarium future if we can ever figure them out.
