Friday, September 5, 2008
Information on Coral Polyps
- Ahermatypic
- Animals
- Related to anemones and jellyfish
- Must rely on capturing food with the tentacles of the individual coral polyps
- In sunlight, ahermatypic coral polyps are normally retracted
- Sometimes, the coral polyps are only extended during daylight, but this seems to only occur in areas of shade, such as on the bottom side of a large, round coral head, or in caverns, or in deeper waters
- At night the polyps are extended, using their tentacles to catch free-swimming worms, plankton and other microscopic organisms
- As a diver, shining a bright dive light directly on a polyp helps the coral feed, as hundreds of tiny insect-like microorganisms attracted to the light are captured by the sticky coral tentacles. The captured prey are passed to the polyp mouth and absorbed as food
flew away
whee..
