Red sea fan

Scientific name : Paramuricea clavata

It is the biggest Mediterranean gorgonian: its fans may reach one meter of extension. The fans are planar, made by a large number of stiff branches, usually fused each others. The surface is rough, because of the presence of the polyps, each one with eight tentacles with small offshoots. The polyps, totally retractable are yellow, while the rest of the colony is red, sometimes with the apical portion coloured in yellow.
It creates meadows in rocky habitat, with strong flows, below thirty meters of depth.

Red sea fan Author FEDERICO BETTI Id: 1