Drupella cornus commonly occurs on or under tabular corals of the genera Acropora and Montipora or on hard substrates in the lower intertidal zone and shallow sublittoral zone.
Generally, coral gobies, unlike the rest of the Gobiidae family, are not burrowers, but instead prefer to inhabit the branches of certain Acropora or similar hard corals.
Found between depths of 10 and 40 metres (35–130 ft), it is often associated with live coral colonies, such as the table-forming Acropora, either found on the reefs themselves or the sandy sea bottom nearby.
Acropora |
When fragments of Acropora grandis were planted into a mid-water nursery bed, over 95% survived and these were later transplanted onto a reef at Phi Phi Islands, Thailand that had been devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami.
White pox disease (also called acroporid serratiosis and "patchy necrosis"), first noted in 1996 on coral reefs near the Florida keys, is a coral disease affecting Elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) throughout the Caribbean.