Members of the family may have two kinds of polyps; the autozooids have long trunks and eight tiny branched tentacles and project from the shared leathery tissue while the siphonozooids remain below the surface and pump water for the colony.

They are often pioneer reef species and are found in wave-exposed areas of reef crests, less turbid waters in lagoons, on steep slopes, under overhangs and at depths of thirty metres or even deeper.

[3] Leathery coral polyps include endosymbiotic algae called zooxanthellae.

[2] In a study on the Great Barrier Reef, it was found that the population of these corals was very stable.

There was little predation, low rates of growth, reproduction and mortality, few new colonies came into existence and few disappeared over a three-year period.