Open brain coral

Amazing fact

The open brain coral has wrinkles radiating from the area around its central mouth.

新潟市水族館マリンピア日本海

Open brain coral in its habitat (illustration)

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An illustration based on the real animal.

A little discovery to share.

The open brain coral has wrinkles radiating from the area around its central mouth.

Source新潟市水族館マリンピア日本海 — ヒユサンゴ

THE REAL WORLD

The real Open brain coral

Scientific name: Trachyphyllia geoffroyi
Japanese name: ヒユサンゴ
Group: Ocean animals

Class: Hexacorallia
Order: Scleractinia
Family: Trachyphylliidae
Genus: Trachyphyllia

Facts about the real animal.

It lives south of central Honshu.

鳥羽水族館 — ヒユサンゴ

Its fluorescent colors are so varied that it is said no two have the same color.

鳥羽水族館 — ヒユサンゴ

How the Open brain coral lives

During the day, it spreads out the fleshy part of its body. At night, the fleshy part of its body shrinks and it extends its tentacles. It grows attached to a surface, but detached individuals are also often seen.

新潟市水族館マリンピア日本海

Basic data

Range: Central Honshu southward

鳥羽水族館

Conservation status in Japan: Vulnerable (VU)Ministry of the Environment of Japan, Marine Red List (2017)

Where the Open brain coral has been recorded

Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF

Where it livesJapan Ocean

Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.

Names around the world

日本語: ヒユサンゴ
简体中文: 蜿蜒曲纹珊瑚
繁體中文: 蜿蜒曲紋珊瑚
Português (Brasil): Coral-petaloide

Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.

Sources and how we check

鳥羽水族館 — ヒユサンゴChecked: 2026-11-04
新潟市水族館マリンピア日本海 — ヒユサンゴChecked: 2026-11-07
Ministry of the Environment of Japan, Marine Red List (2017)Checked: 2026-11-07

We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.

The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.

The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.

The conservation status in Japan is the category in the Red Lists of the Ministry of the Environment of Japan, which assess the risk of extinction for wild animals in Japan.

This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.

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