---
title: Tongue Coral (Herpolitha limax)
scientific_name: Herpolitha limax
common_name: Tongue Coral
taxon: Hard corals
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-01-12T15:11:37.677Z
updated: 2026-08-17T15:37:37.039Z
tags: Tongue Coral, Herpolitha limax, Hard corals, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/stinging/hard-corals/tongue-coral
---

# Tongue Coral (*Herpolitha limax*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Hard corals (*Scleractinia*)
- **Size:** up to 45 cm
- **Depth:** 1-30 m
- **Diet:** Photosynthetic
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Reef slopes and lagoons, lying loose on sand and rubble
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner
- **CITES:** Appendix II
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- elongated slab with rounded ends, lying loose on the bottom
- a single furrow running the length of the upper surface, lined with mouths
- surface covered in fine toothed ridges
- gray, brown or greenish-brown
- up to 45 cm

It is not attached to anything. Most corals cement themselves to the reef as larvae and stay put for life; the mushroom corals break loose while young and live free on sand and rubble, and this one, an elongated slab with rounded ends, is among the largest of them.

Lying loose means dealing with sediment and with being turned over, and these corals do both. By inflating parts of their tissue with water and letting it out again they can lift an edge, shift their weight, and work themselves upright or out from under a layer of sand, moving several centimeters in a night. It is slow, and it is not swimming, but for an animal that is effectively a stone it is a remarkable thing to be able to do.

A single long furrow runs down the middle of the upper surface, lined with slit-like mouths, and the whole surface is covered in fine toothed ridges. Sometimes the furrow forks, and the colony grows as a Y, a T or even a cross.

The genus contains one species, and this is it.

## Also known as

- **English:** slipper coral, Hairy Tongue Coral, striate boomerang coral
- **French:** Corail-boomerang
- **Italian:** Corallo lumaca, Madrepora lumaca
- **German:** Pantoffelkoralle
- **Czech:** houbovník slimákovitý
- **Japanese:** キュウリイシ, キュウリイシ［ヒトスジキュウリイシ］, ヒトスジキュウリイシ
- **Chinese:** 蛞蝓匐石珊瑚
- **Russian:** Херполита-слизень
- **LT:** Liežuvinis grybenis
- **TH:** ปะการังบูมเมอแรง

## Scientific synonyms

- *Fungia limacina* Lamarck, 1801
- *Fungia limax* (Esper, 1792)
- *Fungia praecursor* Umbgrove, 1946
- *Fungia weberi* Van der Horst, 1921
- *Haliglossa foliosa* Ehrenberg, 1834
- *Haliglossa interrupta* Ehrenberg, 1834
- *Haliglossa interrupta var. subpileata* Ehrenberg, 1834
- *Haliglossa limacina* (Lamarck, 1801)
- *Haliglossa stellaris* Ehrenberg, 1834
- *Herpetoglossa secunda* Nemenzo, 1988
- *Herpetolitha ampla* Verrill, 1864
- *Herpetolitha crassa* (Dana, 1846)
- *Herpetolitha crassus* (Dana, 1846)
- *Herpetolitha foliosa* (Ehrenberg, 1834)
- *Herpetolitha interrupta* (Ehrenberg, 1834)
- *Herpetolitha limax* (Esper, 1792)
- *Herpetolitha stellaris* (Ehrenberg, 1834)
- *Herpetolitha stricta* (Dana, 1846)
- *Herpetolithas foliosa* (Ehrenberg, 1834)
- *Herpetolithas interrupta* (Ehrenberg, 1834)
- *Herpetolithas limacina* (Lamarck, 1801)
- *Herpetolithas stellaris* (Ehrenberg, 1834)
- *Herpetolithus crassus* Dana, 1846
- *Herpetolithus foliosus* (Ehrenberg, 1834)
- *Herpetolithus interruptus* (Ehrenberg, 1834)

## Range

Australia, East Africa, India, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Marshall Islands, Mozambique, North Pacific Ocean, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Red Sea, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Pacific Ocean, United States

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/stinging/hard-corals/tongue-coral)*
*Updated: August 17, 2026*