Fleshy coral with broad surfaces and ruffled edges.

Leaf leather coral

Sinularia brassica
Where at Shedd?
Wonder of Water Wild Reef
Diet Very small animals and plant-like organisms called zooplankton and phytoplankton and nourishment from photosynthesis with symbiotic zooxanthellae
Size Colonies up to 7 inches (17 cm) in diameter
Type Corals & Anemones
Range Shallow water reef flats and lagoons in the Indian and West-Central Pacific Oceans
Habitat Widespread in shallow water reef flats and lagoons in the Indian and west-central Pacific Oceans

Did you know?

  1. Coral reefs cover less than 1 percent of the ocean floor, but they serve as home to over twenty-five percent of all ocean animals.
  2. You can help keep wild corals healthy! Use natural cleaners in the home and natural fertilizers on the lawn. Traveling from your drain to the ocean, a pound of phosphorus can create a 500-pound bloom of harmful algae that suffocate corals.
  3. They may look like plants but corals are animals. Like other animals they find their own food and they move freely (even if it’s just at the beginning of their lifecycle).