What kind of animals live in the tropical coral?

The coral provides shelter for many animals in this complex habitat, including sponges, nudibranchs, fish (like Blacktip Reef Sharks, groupers, clown fish, eels, parrotfish, snapper, and scorpion fish), jellyfish, anemones, sea stars (including the destructive Crown of Thorns), crustaceans (like crabs, shrimp, and …

How many animals live in coral reefs?

Scientists believe that more than a million species around the world live on coral reefs. At any one reef, thousands of species can be collected or observed living there.

What is one unusual * species that lives in a coral reef ecosystem?

There are the seahorses, which are one of the most unusual fish designs on the reef. And believe it or not, it is actually the male seahorse that gives birth to the young. There are even seahorses that look like seaweed. Camouflage has evolved into an art form here on the coral reef.

What animals live in the coral reef kids?

They include sponges, starfish, anemones, cucumbers, snails, and clams. Also, there are lots of fish swimming around such as cuttlefish, sharks, lionfish, pufferfish, clownfish, and eels. There are 1500 species of fish and 400 species of coral that live on the Great Barrier Reef alone.

What do animals in the coral reef eat?

zooplankton
The algae live within the coral polyps, using sunlight to make sugar for energy. This energy is transferred to the polyp, providing much needed nourishment. In turn, coral polyps provide the algae with carbon dioxide and a protective home. Corals also eat by catching tiny floating animals called zooplankton.

What predators live in the coral reef?

In addition to weather, corals are vulnerable to predation. Fish, marine worms, barnacles, crabs, snails and sea stars all prey on the soft inner tissues of coral polyps. In extreme cases, entire reefs can be devastated if predator populations become too high.

Is Coral Reef an animal?

Though coral may look like a colorful plant growing from roots in the seafloor, it is actually an animal. Corals are known as colonial organisms, because many individual creatures live and grow while connected to each other.

How do animals survive in the coral reef?

In a coral reef, fish and other animals can hide from larger predators, like sharks, because they have small, flat bodies. Coral reefs have lots of cracks and crevices. The small, flat bodies of coral reef fish allow them to move quickly and make sharp turns at the last second to escape predators.

What kind of fish live in a coral reef?

These beautiful mandarinfish (Synchiropus splendidus) are covered in bright blue, red, yellow and orange waves. What they lack, however, are traditional fish scales. They live in western Pacific tropical coral reef ecosystems and instead of your typical fish scales they are covered in a smelly, thick mucus coating.

How many species of coral are there on Earth?

Underwater red finger Gorgonia (Diodogorgia nodulifera) coral An underwater image of a red finger Gorgonia sea fan (Diodogorgia nodulifera) on a coral reef. Coral reefs are the one of earths most complex ecosystems, containing over 800 species of corals and one million animal and plant species.

Which is the largest coral reef in the world?

Maro is the largest reef in the Northwest Hawaiian Islands and just one of the many marine ecosystems protected in the 140,000 square miles of Papahānaumokuākea, one of the largest marine protected areas in the world. ( Hippocampus bargibanti) grows to only 2cm in length and matches the gorgonian coral that it lives on.

Is the Coral Sea as big as the Grand Canyon?

The area, a third of the continent’s territorial waters, includes an underwater canyon as large as the U.S. Grand Canyon, seagrass meadows, and the biodiverse reefs of the Coral Sea, including the one pictured here at Montague Island. Can You Spot the Seahorse?