War coral, with its vivid green mouths - named because of its aggressive territorial nature (and rumour has it because of its Latin identification which includes the name 'pentagona').

"Neon cosmos is a great shot. The image has arresting colour and composition as well as repeating structure and detail in the coral. The eye contact of the goby and focus of the whole image is excellent. It’s obviously an image that’s been done in various forms before and they are generally very successful in competitions worldwide. I think that it might be worth looking through the series of images you have because it would it would be nice if the goby wasn’t crossing one of the circles, rather just sat on the surrounding coral. There might be a crop with an angle that could put the goby slightly to one side intersecting one of the thirds at an angle so it becomes a more appealing composition. I tried decreasing the exposure and hi lights just a little and increasing the contrast and found that made it even more impactful with even greater detail in the coral. Overall I think it’s a great shot, with great colour, love it!"

Judged by Catherine Holmes

Location: Lembeh Strait, Molucca Sea, Indonesia

Photographer: Laura Storm