The composition of the eubacterial community of the octocoral Erythropodium caribaeorum was assessed using culture-independent 16S small subunit rDNA clone libraries and culture dependent technique. The inhabiting microbial community was found to be phylogenetically diverse.  The culture-independent analysis indicated that Proteobacteria and cyanobacteria comprised the majority of the retrieved sequences from the coral. The species composition of the cultured microbial population from Erythropodium caribaeorum, differed dramatically from that of the 16S library. Cultured isolates were dominated by Firmicutes, Proteobacteria and actinobacteria. Firmicutes were absent in the clone library. Several b-Proteobacteria strains were represented in the clone library, while they were absent in the cultured isolate. All the isolated strains were screened for antimicrobial activity, showing some strains with antimicrobial activity, Bacillus pumilus, Bacillus niabensis, Agrobacterium sp and Streptomyces sp.