- Size
- Fans commonly 0.5–2 m across
- Snorkel or dive
- Mostly dive, on channel and thila walls.
- Best season
- Year-round; incoming current makes the fans feed and stand tall.
- Conservation
- Not individually assessed by the IUCN Red List.
How to recognise it
Flexible, branching colonies that grow in a flat, net-like fan across the current; red, orange, purple or yellow with feathery feeding polyps.
Behaviour in the wild
Filter-feeders that orient broadside to the current to catch drifting plankton; shelter longnose hawkfish, gobies and tiny crabs.
Where to see it in the Maldives
Current-swept channel walls, overhangs and deeper thila faces, especially on outer-atoll passes.
Visual field notes
See sea fan (gorgonian) from more than one angle.
One verified identification image is currently available.
01 · Field portrait · Species reference
Field notes
Each fan grows perpendicular to the prevailing current so every polyp gets a share of the passing plankton — a living current gauge.
Profile references
References are shown transparently; profile copy may also include editorial synthesis. Seasons and sightings vary with wild conditions.
