Learn & Explore/Species/Introduced & Invasive/Pulsing Coral
Pulsing Coral
Category: Invasive
Highly invasive soft coral that forms dense mats, often smothering native stony corals and seafloor habitats.
Pulsing Coral (Unomia stolonifera)
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Pinkish-white or brownish-orange, long-tentacled soft coral
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Called pulsing coral for its dance-like movement underwater
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Branching stalk with unclustered polyps growing along it 1
Habitat
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0.5 to 20 m depths 3
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Can grow on both hard (rock, coral) and soft substrates (sediment) 2, 3
Impacts & Concern
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Grows quickly, can easily propagate by fragmentation, and attaches to floating debris
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Overgrows reefs, including stony corals and seagrass beds, with the potential to decrease fish stocks 3
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May be able to attach to vessel hulls
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Has a strong rotten fish smell that can spread to the surrounding reef
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No known natural predators 3
Introduction
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Likely an aquarium or release
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First found in Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in 2020. Now covers 82 acres in Pearl Harbor, including overgrowing colonies of native stony corals
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Invasive in Venezuela as a result of aquarium release, where it has impacted over 60 miles of reef
Distribution in Hawai‘i
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Kauaʻi: Not documented
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O‘ahu: Pearl Harbor*
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Molokaʻi: Not documented
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Lānaʻi: Not documented
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Maui: Not documented
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Hawaiʻi Island: Not documented
*U. stolonifera is not found anywhere else in the United States currently
Related AIS Team Management Projects
AIS is collaborating with CGAPS, DoD, Bishop Museum, USFWS, NOAA, UH, and colleagues from DAR as a part of the Hawaiʻi Invasive Octocorals Working Group on the U. stolonifera infestation within Pearl Harbor
Regulations
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Restricted for private and commercial use, including for research by universities or government agencies, exhibition in municipal zoos or government-affiliated aquariums, for other institutions for medical or scientific purposes (§4-71-6.5)
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Does not include individual possession of an animal as a pet
References
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Benayahu, Y., van Ofwegen, L., Ruiz-Allais, J., & McFadden, C. (2021). Revisiting the type of Cespitularia stolonifera Gohar, 1938 leads to the description of a new genus and a species of the family Xeniidae (Octocorallia, Alcyonacea). Zootaxa, 4964(2). 330-344. 10.11646/zootaxa.4964.2.5
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Ruiz-Allais, J., Amaro, M.E., McFadden, C., & Halasz, A. (2014). The first incidence of an alien soft coral of the family Xeniidae in the Caribbean, an invasion in eastern Venezuelan coral communities. Coral Reefs, 33(2). 287-287. 10.1007/s00338-013-1122-1
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Ruiz-Allais, J., Benayahu, Y. & Lasso-Alcalá, O. (2021). The invasive octocoral Unomia stolonifera (Alcyonacea, Xeniidae) is dominating the benthos in the Southeastern Caribbean Sea. Memoria, 79. 63-80. 10.5281/zenodo.4784709
