I NFORMATION SHEET A
(cont.)
Dangerous reef creatures
Fire coral
(Millepora)
(sometimes called
stinging hydroids)
Colour: Light brown with smooth, yellowish
branch tips
Location: On outer reef flat and upper parts
of reef slope.
Description: Has a hard limey skeleton with
smooth stumpy branches. Looks like a true
coral but is a member of a related group, the
hydrozoans. Has minute stinging polyps in its
branches.
Cone shells
(e.g. textile cone,
Conus textile)
Colour: Often have striking patterns of
various kinds. The textile cone pattern is one
example.
Location: On bottom of reef flat and
elsewhere. Often buried or hidden.
Description: Usually, but not always, cone
shaped. Inject venom using a harpool in their
mobile proboscis. Easily confused with
harmless types of shells, such as the red-
lipped stromb. Beware!
Stingrays
(e.g. blue-spotted ray,
Taeniura
lymma,
described below)
Colour: Bright blue spots
Location: In shallow waters of reef-top. May
shelter under ledges during day. May be
partly buried on bottom.
Description: Flat disc-like body about 37cm
in diameter. Long whip-like tail may inflict
wound and discharge venom.
Box jellyfish
(Chironex fleckeri)
(sometimes
called
sea wasp)
Colour: Translucent; almost colourless
Location: Often in shallow water in muddy
inshore areas but can also be found in many
other kinds of locations.
Description: Consists of round-topped, box-
like bell (often
10-17cm) attached
to many
tentacles up to
2
metres long. Stinging cells
occur on tentacles.
Stinging hydroid "white"
(Lytocarpus
phillipinus)
Colour: White
Location: In deeper water than fireweed.
Look out for this when snorkelling over the
outerslope of
a reef.
Description: This Is a more delicate hydroid
than fireweed.
11
hip
a
feathery appearance;
stems are brown; polyps are white.
Fireweed
(Aglaeophenia cupressina)
Colour: Khaki
Location: Reef flat, among coral in pools.
Description: This looks like
a clump
of small
brown fern but is actually a colony
of
small
animals hydroids. In each "frond" there is
a central stalk and side branches along which
small stinging polyps occur.
