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SPECIES GALLERY |
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Hard corals
Each no bigger than a fingernail, hard corals build reefs by growing atop the stony skeletons of previous coral colonies. Assuming such shapes as plates, domes, and branches, coral colonies have created the largest structures ever made by living things. But like any masterpiece, a coral reef takes time, growing about a half inch (1.3 centimeters) a year.
Armed with tentacles that help them “fish” for meals of minute plankton, the individual corals, or polyps, are tubelike animals related to jellyfish and sea anemones. Unlike most of their cousins, though, corals harbor their own built-in food factories.
Inside corals’ clear outer tissues live microscopic algae, which transform sunlight into sugars through photosynthesis. The hosts help themselves to some of the sugars and even gain a bit of added color.
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Nudibranch
Psychedelic skin tones tell predators this shell-less snail packs a poisonous punch. But most nudibranchs weren’t born toxic.
Nudibranchs snack on sea squirts, sponges, and hydroids that are poisonous to other animals. But instead of breaking down their preys’ toxins, nudibranchs incorporate them into their own armories. And that’s not all they can recycle.
So-called solar-powered nudibranchs eat soft corals, which generally have algae living in their tissues. When solar-powered nudibranchs eat soft corals, they don’t digest the algae, they keep them in their outer tissues. There the algae continue photosynthesizing, converting sunlight into food for themselves and their new host.
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Titan triggerfish
At up to 2.5 feet (75 centimeters) long, titans are the largest of the triggerfish, which wield an intimidating arsenal of hunting behaviors.
Squirting water from their mouths and flapping their fins, triggerfish “dig” for crabs, worms, and other prey. When attacking sea urchins, triggers often flip them over, exposing their less spiny undersides. It all adds up to a predator so successful that smaller fish swim in its wake and survive on its scraps.
The trigger is equally resourceful, and tenacious, when it comes to egg rearing. After female triggers lay their eggs in nests on the seafloor—a rarity among reef fish—they continually blow water on them to ensure a good oxygen supply. They’re also known to put the bite on approaching fish or photographers swimming in for a close-up.
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Cone snail
After sniffing out worms and other prey on the seafloor with its tubelike siphon, this toxic mollusk extends a sharp, spearlike tooth at the end of an organ called a proboscis.
When the fang finds its mark, the cone snail injects a neurotoxin that induces immediate muscle spasms and quick death. The same fate may await humans who encounter especially venomous species of cone snails, though deaths are rare.
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Sea anemone and anemonefish
The stinging tentacles of a sea anemone offer the immune anemonefish shelter and a safe place to lay eggs. In return the anemone gains a “guard dog.” Anemonefish prune harmful parasites from their hosts and drive off fish that prey on anemones, such as some butterflyfish.
After a day of feeding on plankton, an anemone gathers itself into a bunch for the night. Anemonefish, protected by a mucus on their skin, snuggle into the stinging mass, protected till daybreak.
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