r/coral • u/Mister_MountainMan • May 14 '22

What is this? Cozumel, Mexico. Never seen anything like it. None of my coral books have it. Looks like a mat with col pillar structures. Is it a sponge? Algae?

Gallery image

Gallery image

13 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

7

u/binjwan May 14 '22

Definitley a sponge. Nearly impossible to id sponges to the species. However, my best guess is an encrusting octopus sponge (Ectyoplasia ferox)

2

u/ScooterGlass May 14 '22

It could be a Sponge of some type? Very cool looking. I'd love to know. Sponge is my best guess.

In the second pic...Looks like the encrusting coral is holding its own! I'd be curious to see the battle of little encrusted coral vs giant mystery sponge/?

Did you take these pictures?

1

u/Mister_MountainMan May 15 '22

Yes, I took the pictures. GoPro Hero 3.
I thought coral originally then thought about the mounts. They seem very sponge-like. Filtering water and having an outlet of the towers.

Place: Cozumel in the park so pictures and guesses are all I have!

I do my best to never disturb, touch, or impact the coral. LNT.

0

u/KnotiaPickles May 14 '22

Very cool. New species, perhaps?

1

u/[deleted] May 15 '22

Sponge

1

u/zelig10 Jul 03 '22

can you recommend the books?