slower growing community. Feeding strategies Organisms display different strategies for consuming coral. The majority of corallivores feed on stony coral, however, a few species feed on soft coral. There are no known obligate soft coral feeder; soft coral is estimated to be a small percentage of the diet of soft coral feeders. The most common genera of coral consumed are Acropora, Pocillopora, Montipora, and Porites. Only 18 out of the 111 described coral genera are known to be consumed by corallivores. Mucus feeders Mucus feeders feed exclusively on coral mucus. Coral regularly slough off mucus into the surrounding water, so it is thought that mucus feeding causes no harm to the coral. However, it has been shown to disrupt microbial communities living on the coral. Many mucus feeders have shown a preference towards damaged corals, which typically produce more mucus than undamaged corals. Browsers Browsers eat coral tissue without damaging the coral's calcium carbonate skeleton. The majority of corallivore species are browsers. Scrapers Scrapers consume live coral tissue and small portions of the coral's calcium carbonate skeleton. Excavators Excavators consume live coral tissue and large portions of the coral's calcium carbonate skeleton. Excavators can be further broken down to "spot biters" and "focused biters". Spot biters take bites that are scattered over a colony's surface, while focused biters bite repeatedly in the same area. At one time, focused biting was thought to be a display of territoriality in parrotfish, but was later determined to be for food. Out of all of the kinds of corallivores, excavators are thought to have the biggest impact on coral reef communities due to the large amount of coral and skeleton consumed. Additionally, studies suggest that the damage from excavating takes significantly longer to heal than other types of corallivory. Bioeroders Bioeroders consume dead coral substrate. Bioeroders are thought to help reshape coral reef landscapes by eroding dead corals. In nature Corallivory is relatively rare in nature; less than 3% of known fish species, four families of crustaceans, four families of gastropods, and a few echinoderm genera have been identified as corallivores. Corallivores are present in all tropical reef regions. The region with the highest proportion of corallivorous organisms is the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean. Fish Butterflyfish constitute a large percentage of the known corallivores; of the 128 known corallivorous fish species, 69 are butterflyfish species. Additionally, 50% of butterflyfish species are corallivores, making corallivory