What does the Sea pen eat?

Sea pens are filter feeders, their special feeding polyps - called autozooids - have 8 tentacles that they use to catch plankton and other particles of food from the surrounding water. There are 3 types of sea pen found in UK seas, including the beautiful phosphorescent sea pen.

1. How do sea pen survive?
2. What animals eat sea pens?
3. How long do sea pens live?
4. Are sea pens edible?
5. Are sea pens sessile?
6. Is Gorgonia a medusa or polyp?
7. Why is sea pen important?
8. Are sea pens Coelenterate?
9. Where do sea fans live?
10. Is jellyfish an animal?
11. Can sea pens glow?
12. Can coral be black?

How do sea pen survive?

Each sea pen is a colony of polyps (small anemonelike individuals) working together for the survival of the whole. ... Some polyps feed by using nematocysts to catch plankton; some polyps reproduce; and some force water in and out of canals that ventilate the colony.

What animals eat sea pens?

Their major predators are nudibranchs and sea stars, some of which feed exclusively on sea pens. During the daylight hours Sea Pens usually bury themselves into the sand, and come out at night to capture plankton.

How long do sea pens live?

Sea pens are a type of octocoral, or soft coral, which are related to jellyfish and anemones. They may not get as much love as their glamorous cousins, the reef-building hard corals, but sea pens are fascinating creatures that can live to be 100 years old, glow in the dark and live in the soft sediments of Puget Sound.

Are sea pens edible?

A few sea pens may harbour zooxanthellae (symbiotic algae) inside their bodies. These carry out photosynthesis and may contribute nutrients to the host polyp. But most gather edible bits from the water.

Are sea pens sessile?

Sea pens are colonial. Although considered sessile, they can move up to 40 cm by slow creeping on their vertical axes while still attached to their substrates. One behavioral characteristic found in all sea pens is that they have the ability to bury themselves.

Is Gorgonia a medusa or polyp?

sea fan, (genus Gorgonia), any member of a genus of invertebrate marine animals of the suborder Holaxonia (class Anthozoa, phylum Cnidaria). It is a variety of coral composed of numerous polyps—cylindrical sessile (attached) forms—that grow together in a flat fanlike pattern.

Why is sea pen important?

As a consequence, sea pens are regarded as an important indicator of the quality of mud habitats and associated communities (Macdonald et al., 1996), relevant to environmental legislation such as the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD; 2008/56/EC).

Are sea pens Coelenterate?

cnidarian, also called coelenterate, any member of the phylum Cnidaria (Coelenterata), a group made up of more than 9,000 living species. Mostly marine animals, the cnidarians include the corals, hydras, jellyfish, Portuguese men-of-war, sea anemones, sea pens, sea whips, and sea fans.

Where do sea fans live?

The Common Sea Fan can be found in patches of reefs and outer areas of the reefs typically in water depths up to 30 meters, and they tend to thrive in areas where the water flow is at a constant speed. The speed of the water is important due to the fact that all sea fans are filter feeders.

Is jellyfish an animal?

jellyfish, any planktonic marine member of the class Scyphozoa (phylum Cnidaria), a group of invertebrate animals composed of about 200 described species, or of the class Cubozoa (approximately 20 species).

Can sea pens glow?

Most sea pens luminesce, or glow, when they are touched or otherwise stimulated. The secondary polyps are of two types: siphonozooid and autozooid.

Can coral be black?

Black corals are rarely black, but rather vary in color from white to red, green, yellow, or brown. They also range in shape from small bushes to bottle brushes to fans to single stalks. The black corals differ greatly from stony corals in terms of their skeletons.