Who Gives A Fish Forums

Biology Question... I'm hoping someone can shed some light on this for me. I'm posting here, but I'm starting to wonder if I'm in the wrong place - is this the right forum for biology-related questions?

Your second and flintix9t pics are actually single animal corals, whereas the others appear to be colonies, and you're correct in assuming each 'flower' is a single animal within the colony.

A general Google search for info on coral colonies should yield plenty of useful information.

I'm always learning something new about these creatures - it's fascinating stuff.

When you're looking at a coral, the colony itself is essentially a single individual, made up of many connected clones - kind of like the branches on a tree. Each polyp within the colony is capable of forming a whole new colony under the right conditions - similar to how some trees can regrow from a broken limb.

For corals like Pectinia and Catalaphyllia, distinguishing one polyp from another can be a bit tricky, but basically each polyp has its own mouth, so that's how you can tell them apart.