---
title: Elat Coral Worm (Filogranella elatensis)
scientific_name: Filogranella elatensis
common_name: Elat Coral Worm
taxon: Annelid
published: 2026-08-10T14:05:19.461Z
updated: 2026-08-10T15:38:01.860Z
tags: Elat Coral Worm, Filogranella elatensis, Annelid, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/worms/annelid/elat-coral-worm
---

# Elat Coral Worm (*Filogranella elatensis*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Annelid (*Annelida*)
- **Size:** colonies to 10 cm across
- **Depth:** 3-30 m
- **Diet:** Filter feeder
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Shaded rock and dead coral, in tangled tube colonies
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Budding, Gonochoric

## How to recognise it

- tangle of fine white calcareous tubes, like a mat of straws
- tiny crowns emerging from each tube, translucent
- colonies grow on shaded rock and dead coral
- colonies to 10 cm across

A colony of fine white calcareous tubes tangled together like a mat of straws, spreading across shaded rock and dead coral, with a tiny translucent crown emerging from each tube. Colonies reach about 10 cm (4 in) and read as a mineral crust rather than as animals until the crowns are out.

Most tube worms are solitary; this genus builds colonies by budding, so a mat is the descendants of one settler as much as a gathering of separate individuals. The crowns are small enough that a colony in full filter looks fuzzy rather than feathery, and they withdraw all at once at a shadow, turning the mat back into stone. The species was described from the northern end of this sea and is one of a handful of local names that carry the town of Eilat - which is where a good deal of the region's marine biology has been done.

## Also known as

- **English:** Delicate Tube Worm
- **French:** Salmacine
- **Japanese:** オオシライトゴカイ
- **Russian:** Филогранелла эйлатская

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/worms/annelid/elat-coral-worm)*
*Updated: August 10, 2026*