---
title: Spiral Wire Coral (Cirrhipathes cf. spiralis)
scientific_name: Cirrhipathes cf. spiralis
common_name: Spiral Wire Coral
taxon: Black coral
published: 2024-08-06T20:44:31.277Z
updated: 2026-08-15T22:34:20.061Z
tags: Spiral Wire Coral, Cirrhipathes cf. spiralis, Black coral, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/stinging/black-coral/spiral-wire-coral
---

# Spiral Wire Coral (*Cirrhipathes cf. spiralis*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Black coral (*Antipatharia*)
- **Size:** up to 2 m
- **Depth:** 10-100 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Steep walls and drop-offs with current
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric

## How to recognise it

- single unbranched wire up to 2 m long, often coiled in a loose spiral
- yellow, green or brown polyps in rows along one side
- growing off a wall into open water, swaying with the surge
- length up to 2 m

A single unbranched wire growing off a wall into open water, up to two meters long and often coiled into a loose spiral, with rows of small polyps along it.

It is a black coral, and the name comes from the skeleton rather than the animal: strip the living tissue away and what is left is a hard black core, which is why the group has been harvested for jewelry for centuries and why every black coral is listed on CITES Appendix II. A colony this size is decades old, and it grows a few centimeters a year.

The polyps feed at night on plankton carried past by the current, which is why these grow on walls where water moves and never on sheltered reef.

And a whip is an address. Whip coral shrimps, gobies and squat lobsters live on single strands, each colored to match its own, and a wire that looks bare at a glance usually is not. Run a torch slowly along one and check the shadow side.

## Also known as

- **English:** Spiral Wire Coral, spiraled whip coral
- **French:** Corail spiralé blanc
- **German:** Spiralige Drahtkoralle, Spiralen-Dörnchenkoralle
- **Czech:** trnatec spirálový
- **Japanese:** ネジレカラマツ
- **Russian:** Циррипатес спиральный
- **KO:** 나선실해송
- **TH:** ปะการังสีดำ

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/stinging/black-coral/spiral-wire-coral)*
*Updated: August 15, 2026*