Quote:
Originally Posted by
Mr. Limpid http:///t/394504/disaster#post_3511504
That is terrible the star legs fell off. Yep I love my Xina, its funny they love being in the current grow well. But when I turn off the pumps to feed, they pulse faster, are they trying to make there own current?
I think of them as little hands grabbing for food. With no current to cause food to pass by, maybe they panic and start grabbing as fast as they can in hopes of survival. They don't have eyes or a brain...As I understand coral...teeny tiny creatures make up the coral, they work together to survive and count on the food in the water to get close enough for them to grab it. Anyway I looked it up...
Coral Polyp
by
Kevin Brown
A coral polyp is an invertebrate meaning an animal with no backbone, examples of this are anemones and jellyfish. It is also the single living unit of a coral and the creature responsible for our coral reefs. One coral piece can be covered by thousands of coral polyps that in a group are called a coral colony. A coral can also consist of just one polyp, an example of this is the
Scolymia sp..
A coral polyp has a sack like body and an opening encircled by stinging tentacles called cnidae. The coral polyp uses calcium carbonate from seawater to build itself a hard skeleton and it is this limestone skeleton that protects the soft coral polyp.
Coral polyps are usually nocturnal which means they are closed during the day and extend their tentacles to feed at night. They can feed during the day if there is an abundance of food in the water such as zooplankton. Most reef building coral will contain live photosynthetic algae called zooxanthellae, this zooxanthellea is what gives the coral nourishment to survive.
Coral polyps have a simple nervous system and no brain or spinal cord. This simple nervous system consists of nerve cells that loosely connect to other coral polyps on the structure. It is this nerve net that will cause other polyps to react when only a few polyps were disturbed on the coral.
Years ago when I got my first Xenia, every time I fed the coral food, the Xenia polyps would close up...I thought it didn't like the food. The LFS owner (no computer back then) told me the coral was feeding and closed up to trap the food. That's why I think of them as little hands.
