<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6788174#post6788174 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MattG
Soft corals and Sea Fans is a must for anyone wanting to learn about octocorals. Alderslade is the definitive expert in octocoral identification.
Ron, next time i'm at the shop i will bring it with me.
The book gives detailed info for many different family and genera. For each they include: colony shape, polyp descriptions, sclerite descriptions (detailed pictures to scale from all parts of the coral), colour, habitat and abundance, Zoogeographic distribution, and similiar/related genera. Of course there are lots of pictures on top of that for each genus.
Of course they also talk about the Ecology (distribution, enviroment, chemical ecology) and biology (Anatomy, Reproduction, Nutrition), and other aspects. It is my favorite reference book.