Coral Reef Talk At School

[fishboy8]

I am doing a coral Reefs talk in english and i need a bit of info about the folowing things

symbiotic relationships

parasitic relationships

structure of corals

well known fish and invertibrates

any info would be greatly appreciated

THANKS

 

[ben1987]

I am doing a coral Reefs talk in english and i need a bit of info about the folowing things

symbiotic relationships

parasitic relationships

structure of corals

well known fish and invertibrates

any info would be greatly appreciated

THANKS

clown fish and anenomes come into 1 & 4 on your list.

goby and shrimp pairings are interesting for number one aswel

structure of corals. there mainly 3 typles:
soft corals: fleshy corals that dont have a skeleton
LPS corals large polyp stoney corals such as torch coral. there have a skeleton and large fleshy polyps that are usually photysynthetic and eat meaty foods
SPS small polyp stony corals, a skeleton with tiny polyps coving it that are mainly photosynthetic

 

[Crazy fishes]

Hey Ben,

Just a point SPS are voracious filter feeders and it has been shown in a study that they can remove 40x more particulates from the water column compared to LPS. Intersting symbiotic relationships look no further than 'cleaning stations' you have every type of large open water dwelling animal coming back to shallow coral reefs to get cleaned. Corals and zooxanthelles is another really important symbiotic relationship. the small fish that accompany the whale shark and manta rays is a really good example of a parasitic relationship.

kindest regards

Joe

 

[demasonisrule]

#1 - clown/anemone, pistol shrimp/goby, acropora/acropora crab, most fish/cleaner shrimp or cleaner gobies
#2 - parasitic isopods, zoanthid eating nudibranchs, red bugs (eat SPS), anything that lives on another organism that benefits itself while hurting the organism it lives on
#3 - Soft corals, no skeleton with large polyps, get most food from zooxanthellae, though some are non photosynthetic, such as tubastrea and dendrophyllia species.

Stony corals, have skeletons, and the polyps can retract into the corralite(part of the skeleton that the polyp retracts into). They are divided into small-polyped-stonies(SPS), which are the ones that look like dead trees or plates. They have more skeleton than polyp, and the polyps themselves look like little tiny flowers. Then there are large-polyped-stonies(LPS), which usually have a tube like corralite, and a very large polyp. Both rely greatly on light, but will grow much faster if they eat.
#4 - Just a list: Acropora, Montipora, Yellow tang, Regal blue tang, Ocellaris clownfish, lots and lots of stuff to list...