<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" Data-track="82" > coral behave? </h1>
Just as you never understand the behavior of your family leader, there are many opinions and opinions on whether corals have self-behavior. Some people think that corals are lower and should be inactive, but from many indications, corals are definitely behaving!
They are as alive and very active as fish, and if you look closely at them, you will soon find that they do have their own behavior.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="82" > coral behavior</h1>
Although corals can't swim around like fish, they're also qualified hunters. Unable to move, they use stinging cells such as spiny silk sacs to capture and kill their prey.
They have a stinger sac that stores venom, each of which is a cell that exerts pressure, and when they are stimulated, they use a needle to inject venom into each other's body.
But in a sense, they are also food collectors. Because in the process of building coral reefs, they will gradually rise, and in the process collect nutrients that would not otherwise be available.
Most notably, corals are also industrious farmers, growing photosynthetic organisms (zooxanthellae), typical of single-celled algae, called flagella, in their tissues day after day, year after year.
Corals also exhibit social and reproductive behaviors. They are territorially possessive and will try to kill the corals that grow around them. Individual polyps may be small, but they can build the most spectacular natural landscapes anywhere in the world.
Coral reproductive behavior can also be dramatic and dramatic, most notably the synchronized spawning event associated with the moon phase.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="82" > the behavior of different types of corals</h1>
Coral reefs take hundreds of years to form, which sets a time frame for coral biology that humans like us, whose average lifespan of 7 or 80 years old may not necessarily understand.
Coral reefs are formed by the growth and death of countless generations of polyps, which lays the foundation for the growth of the next generation of polyps.
Over the next few hundred years, while an individual polyp may not live that long, in a group, all polyps are clones, so the growth process of the coral itself is an ongoing process that can last for centuries.
In order to distinguish well, the sea circle usually divides corals into several categories from non-scientific specialties.
The first group is the LPS (Large Polyp Stony Corals) large hydra-bodied hard corals, which usually have a stony skeleton and large colorful frills that extend into the water body.
Then there's SPS (Small Polyp Stony Corals) of small hydra-bodied hard corals. Their polyps usually live on skeletons and are mostly branched or disc-shaped.
Finally, soft corals Soft Corals, as the name suggests, are usually very soft on the body, with no hard bones, only tiny bone needles scattered inside the tissues, and their colonies are made up of thick tissues, soft and elastic.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="82" > coral attacks</h1>
Let's start with SPS corals, which are particularly important because they are the basis for building coral reefs. Although they look beautiful, they are actually very dangerous and even lethal, and they will exhibit aggressive behavior toward any coral that is too close to them.
The tile Montipora capricornis, with their highly aggressive behavior, is one of the most "notorious" examples of sps corals. They will compete fiercely for the sunny places they need to thrive.
To hinder the growth of nearby corals, tile corals will grow tall enough to prevent sunlight from reaching other corals. They also use harpoon-like spiny silk sacs to grab nearby corals and inject toxins into rival corals, damaging their fragile skin tissue and sometimes killing it outright.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="82" > the predatory behavior of corals</h1>
The following is about the hunting and gathering behavior of corals. Taking LPS corals as an example, although all corals have hydras, LPS corals have larger hydras, so their collection behavior can be clearly and easily observed. The larger the hydra body of the coral, the larger the food that the coral can catch and eat, and vice versa.
Take euphyllia cristata, for example, which is sometimes mistakenly referred to by new aquarists as frog egg corals. The skeleton of this animal has a number of green tentacles about 2.5 cm in diameter around each branch, which constitutes a considerable polyp head, which is amazing considering that most polyp tentacles are less than 1 mm in diameter.
You can see some green tentacles about 2-4cm in diameter that look as thick as pasta extending from the skeleton. The head of the tentacle has something that looks like a white carry, and in the middle of the tentacle is the so-called mouthpiece. Each branch of the coral community has its own mouthpiece for feeding.
When corals feel hungry or feel food in nearby water, tentacles reach out to wait to catch the food. Let's take the example of the bran shrimp, a small crustacean that corals find delicious. When these shrimp enter the territory of the tizzling coral, it will extend its tentacles to where it can reach.
In addition to these tentacles, there are also special tentacles called sweeping tentacles. They extend farther than most other tentacles. It has many spine-like tentacles and sits there like a hunter, waiting for the shrimp to touch them.
Once the shrimp comes into contact with the tentacles, they are stinged by the toxins contained in the coral's skin and the poisonous spiny sacs, and the captured prey is sent to the mouthparts to digest and then reach out again to find the next food.
Almost all corals have much smaller polyps that feed on phytoplankton or animals, both of which are very tiny foods. Most of the corals that feed on these plankton also prey on the manner described above, but on a much smaller scale.
While these corals have the ability to hunt for food, this behavior simply provides them with a source of supplementary nutrition. In fact, for most reef corals, their main source of nutrients is the sugar produced by the symbiotic algae that live in their bodies.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="82" > coral reproductive behavior</h1>
Corals can reproduce asexually, for example by splitting. Sometimes corals may accidentally be hit by something falling from other places and break into many broken branches, some of which fall too deep or too dark to survive. But the currents of water may take lucky broken branches to favorable places, where they can begin the reproduction of another coral community.
Hurricanes and violent storms are particularly important causes of all kinds of physical damage that can destroy coral groups and thus disperse them throughout the reef.
Another way corals split is self-harm, a behavior that is particularly evident in soft corals. When a mature coral colony reaches its growth limits where it lives, it sometimes cuts itself in half.
Like wrapping a tourniquet around a wound, the strangled part of the coral drifts to another part of the reef, hoping to settle in some suitable place for it to live and grow into a new group of genetically identical people.
Now, the part we're all waiting for is conceiving a new little coral baby through a dramatic spawning process! Corals release their eggs and sperm into the water column at this time, which is sexual reproduction.
Corals allow for the mixing of genes from different populations and bring diversity into the gene pool. As many aquarists know, these spawning processes all occur simultaneously, so communities of all specific species on the reef release eggs and sperm at the same time. It's amazing that corals are able to do that.
But what's even more impressive is that there are countless pelagic fish that can predict when these spawning events will occur and arrive at the reef in time to enjoy this delicious coral caviar buffet.
Scientists haven't figured out how these fish know all this is happening, but they do, and it's incredible to watch them move from their open ocean homes to coral reefs and wait for a feast!
Once corals start releasing their eggs and sperm into the water, the water becomes milky white so much that you can't see through it. This is when the frenzied feast of eating begins, and only a few fertilized eggs can escape the siege of predators and develop into coral larvae. Settlement gradually developed into a new group on a suitable substrate.
We know very little about this phenomenon, but it is interesting to know about this event. For example we do know that it coincides with the phase of the moon. And thanks to years of observational records, we can now predict at least when it will occur precisely to the hour.
This allows scientists to collect live coral eggs and sperm in order to study lesser-known parts of the coral life cycle.
The interesting thing about the Great Barrier Reef is that corals throughout the Great Barrier Reef seem to spawn at the same time every year, but we found that other tropical reefs around the world seem to spawn in the same way. On the other hand, we have also found deep-water coral species that spawn at night.
Corals laying eggs in our homes' sea tanks is rare, but it does happen occasionally, and these can help us better understand the reproductive behavior of corals.
These are just a few brief touches on a few of the different ways corals are active, and I believe it would be easy to fill a book with a comprehensive overview. Sea elves hope that through these can encourage you to discover something deeper and more interesting to play with the sea.