so what's that, a plant?...

well, no. corals are actually animals, although many of them derive at least some of their energy from photosynthesis like plants. this is caused by a symbiotic relationship with zooanthellae- single celled algae that live inside the coral's tissue. cool, eh?

the corals

there are three types of corals.

soft corals have no skeleton. they come in many, many different varieties ranging from the branching tree corals-

-to the anenomes (pictured is a small one called a ricordia) and the zoanthids (pictured is just one of the many color variations available):

next are the large polyped stony corals (lps). such corals build a skeleton out of calcium as they grow- and are often colonies of many individual animals living together. the hammer coral is a lps:

lastly are the small polyped stony corals (the sps). these are traditionally the hardest to keep and the slowest growing. thus, they are the pride of every reefkeeper. they also come in fantastic colors ranging from red to pink, blue green. here's a stony coral that began as a tiny frag in our tank:

the fish

we currently have five fish living in our reef:

two amphiprion ocellaris- the false percula clownfish. clownfish are known for having tons of charisma. here's an incident we observed of our clownfish getting dirty with a plate coral. you may want to put the kids to bed for this series of pictures:

we also have a paracanthurus hepatus- the pacific blue tang

one beautiful acanthurus coeruleus- the atlantic yellow tang

and the stunningly vibrant centropyge loriculus- the flame angelfish

we will forever be in mourning of the passing of our xanthichthys auromarginatus- the bluethroat triggerfish, who passed on from what must have been an internal parasite. here's what he looked like:

the invertebrates

our tank is home to a slew of different invertebrates- ranging from clams to snails and crabs. here's a clam:

and here's a crab:

so, ready to see some pictures of the whole reef tank?