Fun with coral, macro style!

So, I have taken about a million pictures of animals and tanks at work, and occasionally I actually get a relatively good shot. Lately I have been getting better with working my mom's Nikon D50 in manual mode, and took these macro shots of some of the coral in my reef tank. Most of these colonies are under 12" in diameter, and the shots are only slightly cropped and not resized, so open the images up to full size to see them in even more detail.

Encrusting Gorgonian. This has long polyps that are very calming as they wave in the current. It does grow over almost any surface, including other coral!

Sarcophyton sp. - toadstool leather. This guy has very long polyp extensions. Can you see why these are in the octocoral group? (hint: count the oral arms on each polyp! Also look for the one pulling food into it's mouth.)

Tridacna crocea - one of the "giant" clams (although this one doesn't really get that large), and another Sarcophyton sp. These clams get most of their energy from the same source as the coral, from algae that live in their tissue. In fact, the beautiful colors of all coral come from this unique group of algae that has evolved with the coral for millions of years. The coral tissue itself is just a clear white color.

Sinularia sp. - Green finger coral. Another octocoral, this colony in the big reef has really grown a lot in the past 16 months.

Acanthastrea sp - pineapple coral. This is a "true" coral, in that it builds reef. The corals above are all soft coral, but reef building coral all have a stony skeleton they build out of calcium and carbonates they get from the surrounding water.
Turbinaria peltata - pagoda cup coral. Robin thinks this looks like what you get with the playdough barbershop.

Duncanopsammia axifugia - Duncan coral. These still relatively rare in collections, and are one of the best captive stony corals out there because of how hardy and beautiful they are. I love how large the polyps can get in moderate to low light.

Pocillopora sp. - cauliflower coral. This genus is almost all we saw coral-wise when we dove in Hawaii. Some of the colonies in the bay we snorkeled in were easily 10 ft in diameter!

That's all the macro-photography for now. I am really starting to enjoy aquarium photography, and I just was introduced to a fancy gadget by a fellow reefer that makes this hobby that much easier and enjoyable. It's a DIY gadget made out of a drain coupler and a magnifying glass of some sort. It allows you to take top-down shots with any camera. It magnifies the subject and has a very long focal length. None of these pictures were taken with this device, but I'm going to have to build one now.
Anywho, hope you like the close-ups and I hope you learned something!
-Evan