This species is a soft coral but with a unique, hard skeleton of calcium carbonate that contains many organ pipe-like tubes.

Because of this, living colonies are typically green, blue, or purple due to the color of the expanded polyps.

Organ pipe corals are restricted to shallow waters, and tend to live in sheltered areas where they eat plankton.

[1] These tentacles allow the corals to capture both prey and organic particles from the surrounding environment.

[1] The coral is also known to interact with other animals, including two recently discovered copepods found in Madagascar.

[2] The corals exhibit a through-conducting response when disturbed, with a wave of activity sweeping across each part of a colony.

[1][4][12][13][14] Due to its popularity, it is also illegally harvested and smuggled, with one report showing that it is one of the fifteen most traded corals in the world.

[15][1] Observed colonies frequently show signs of being harvested and collected, providing a visual example of how the population is under intense pressure from overharvesting.