It has a horny axial skeleton made of a fibrous protein called gorgonin covered with coenenchyme, a thin layer of living tissue from which the polyps protrude.

[2][3] The regal sea fan is found in the western Atlantic Ocean from Chesapeake Bay, Georgia and Florida to the Gulf of Mexico and off the coast of Venezuela and Brazil.

[2] The polyps of the regal sea fan extend their tentacles to feed and gather plankton and small organisms from the surrounding water.

The skeleton shrimp (Caprella equilibra) grasps the sea fan with its posterior appendages and resembles a bit of attached seaweed.

It is difficult to detect because it is disguised by having numerous small appendages called cerata which closely resemble the sea fan polyps.