Pseudopterogorgia elisabethae

SUBCLASS: COMMON NAME:

OCTOCORALLIA PURPLE FRILLY GORGONIA

PHYLUM: STATUS:

NOT CURRENTLY ENDANGERED,

CNIDARIA
THREATENED OR PROTECTED.

HABITAT

is usually found at deeper and calmer fore reef sites, up to

depths of about 100 feet (31 m), and along reef drop offs.

REPRODUCTION:
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

This species is frequently found as a bushy it reproduces asexually to increase the number of

aggregation of feather-like branches, each zooids. Once it becomes the adult form it is separated

resembling a plume, around a central axis. into male and female colonies where it reproduces
The branches are long, with pinnate, sexually. Males release sperm into the water which is
distichous branchlets.
taken up by the female colonies.

ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE: ECOSYSTEM ROLES

There is a common mutualism, shared by most coral, with

This species has been studied for
zooxanthellae (Symbiodinium spp.). Its role in the building of new
medicinal uses such as analgesics,
reefs has not been fully investigated but other
cosmetic creams and as a non-
octocoral gorgonians, because they are firmly "rooted", may
steriodal anti-inflammatory drug provide a base for other coral colonies to expand.
 Urticina piscivora
PHYLUM: STATUS:
CNIDARIA “NOT EVALUATED” ON THE

IUCN RED LIST.

COMMON NAME: SUBCLASS:

FISH-EATING ANEMONE HEXACORALLIA

FOODS AND FEEDING

LOCATION The Fish Eating Anemone is a carnivore. In nature, they use

their potent sting to immobilize small fish and invertebrates,

You can find this type of species from La Jolla,
primarily shrimp
Mexico to Alaska

IDENTIFICATION REPRODUCTION
The fish-eating anemone has a tall maroon This species can reproduce asexually by splitting

column with no markings. The oral disc is red either vertically or horizontally. They may also

or white with red lines. The short but slender reproduce by spawning eggs or sperm into the

tentacles are all white or white at the base water where, if fertilized, they will develop into

with pink or red tips. It reaches 20 cm tall and planktonic planula larvae, eventually

26 cm in diameter. metamorphosing into an anemone.

 Anthopleura sola
PHYLUM: SUBCLASS:

CNIDARIA HEXACORALLIA

STATUS:
COMMON NAME:
NOT ENDANGERED
SUNBURST ANEMONE
OR THREATENED

REPRODUCTION
Anthopleura sola can reproduce both sexually and

ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE: asexually, although most individuals reproduce

asexually.

Studies are being conducted on the medicinal properties

of Anthopleura sola tissue. A crude extract of this species

FOOD HABITS
has demonstrated antitumor activity against two
Anthopleura sola are carnivorous and feed on
experimental mouse tumors
almost anything offered when hungry including

CHARACTERISTICS: copepods, isopods, amphipods, and other small

animals that come into contact with their tentacles.

Anthopleura sola has short tentacles with pink

or lavender tips. There are radiating lines and

LOCATION
other patterns on the oral disc. The column is
Anthopleura sola is found in the Pacific Ocean, along
green to white with large rounded tubercles,
the west coast of North America from Alaska to Baja
called verrucae, arranged in vertical rows
California.
 Actinia equina
PHYLUM: SUBCLASS:
CNIDARIA HEXACORALLIA

STATUS:
COMMON NAME:
NOT ENDANGERED
BEADLET ANEMONE
OR THREATENED

REPRODUCTION
Actinia equina can reproduce sexually, they can also
CHARACTERISTICS: reproduce asexually through parthenogenesis of vegetative

growth
Actinia equina has a wide array of color variation,

from green to red. The most common hue is rust- FOOD HABITS:
red. The beadlet anemone also varies greatly in

body size, from 0.01 to 0.84 g dry weight The most abundant food sources for this anemone

are: bivalve mollusks, insects, and isopods.

ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE:
LOCATION
A study conducted. by Hutton and Smith (1996)
Actinia equina is found primarily in the
mentioned that the chemicals produced by the
North Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterannean
beadlet anemone could possibly be harnessed for
Sea. One of the most abundant
use in medicine or conservation (protecting plants
concentrations of the species can be found
against foreign bacteria)
around the British Isles.
 Lophelia pertusa
PHYLUM: SUBCLASS:
CNIDARIA HEXACORALLIA

STATUS:
NOT ENDANGERED OR THREATENED

LOCATION
Deepwater white coral has a vast geographic range,

FOOD HABITS including the Atlantic coast of the southeastern United

States, the Gulf of Mexico, the western Caribbean, and

Polyps may catch live prey, including the New England seamounts. This species may be found

zooplankton, calanoid copepods, and euphausiid along the coasts of Brazil and West Africa as well.

crustaceans, by extending their tentacles. When

REPRODUCTION
touched by a tentacle, a prey item is injected

with venom by its cnidocytes (stinging cells). that all polyps in a given colony are the same sex and

CHARACTERISTICS that gametes are released into the water column.

A Lophelia polyp may have up to 16 tentacles ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE

surrounding an opening which acts as the

animal's mouth and anus; these tentacles may This species has a positive impact on the commercial

be seen extending from the reef structure. fishing industry; without the habitat created by coral

Polyps are yellowish, pink, or white in color skeletons, many commercially fished species would

and are translucent not be as abundant.

 Corymorpha nutans
PHYLUM:
CNIDARIA

STATUS:
NO CONSERVATION STATUS

CHARACTERISTICS

The polyp and stem of this solitary hydroid are

LOCATION usually translucent white or pale pink in colour,

and the stem has lines that run longitudinally from

This species is common throughout
the base to where it joins the polyp. The polyp size
the British Isles, and extends is relatively large and bends over towards one

northwards as far as Norway and side, this feature is responsible for the hydroid's

south to the Mediterranean Sea. name (nutans is Latin for nodding). Typically

there are 30 to 40 long, thin tentacles that

surround approximately 80 shorter, finer ones.

Overall height 80-100mm, diameter of the polyp

and tentacles about 20mm.

 Velella velella
PHYLUM:
CNIDARIA

COMMON NAME:
SEA RAFT, BY-THE-WIND

SAILOR

FOOD HABITS
LOCATION The Velella velella is a carnivorous hydroid polyp,

feeding on small prey and fish that can be caught only

The Velella is found floating on the surface of
immediately below the surface of the water. The
the high seas, and is common in the warm seas.
Velella is limited to surface food because it is not a

very big animal and its tentacles do not reach very far.
REPRODUCTION
CHARACTERISTICS
The reproductive polyps were thought
. The Velella is blueish to purple with a flat oval
to produce medusa, which would
transparent float and an erect sail projecting
break away from the colony and
vertically at an angle to the axis of its body. The
reproduce sexually, giving rise to
projection of the sail is so that the animal can take
planula larva
the best advange of the wind, at any given moment
 Stylaster roseus
PHYLUM:
CNIDARIA

COMMON NAME:
ROSE LACE CORAL

LOCATION CHARACTERISTICS:
Found in shallow water to Small pink or white colonies,

approximately 70 m depth in the resembling small sea fans,

Caribbean Sea, Florida, and commonly hanging down from

Bahamas overhangs. These are usually seen in

overhangs, in caves or in other dark

surfaces.
 Porpita porpita
PHYLUM: COMMON NAME:
CNIDARIA BLUE BUTTON

DESCRIPTION:
Blue, thin, transparent circular disc, to which is

attached the hydroid 'colonial' body. Blue

tentacles extend out around the edge of the disc

when it’s in the water. In the centre of the blue

LOCATION tentacles is a white region, which is a modified

polyp that acts as the mouth and stomach of the

They are found in warm waters off Europe like in colony. Body Size up to 2 cm.

the Gulf of Mexico, Mediterranean Sea, New

Zealand, and South U.S.

REPRODUCTION

FOOD HABITS Blue buttons are hermaphrodites, which means that each

blue button jelly has both male and female sex organs.
The Blue Button typically feed on They have reproductive polyps that release eggs and
copepods and crustacean larvae. sperm into the water
 Aequorea forskalea
PHYLUM: COMMON NAME:
CNIDARIA MANY-RIBBED JELLY OR

CRYSTAL JELLY

STATUS:
NO CONSERVATION

STATUS

CHARACTERISTICS
LOCATION: the Aequorea forskalea measures a maximum of 10

centimeters and is easily recognizable by the radial

Can be found amongst the waves
canals connecting the center and the margin of the flat
on Atlantic and North Sea beaches
bell. Its cnidocysts (stinging cells) are not dangerous for

humans, making it one of the most harmless species of

REPRODUCTION jellyfish. It stings mildly, mostly clear and transparent,

Thick saucer-shaped head that gradually thins towards

Species exhibits both asexual and sexual the margin, and has thin, hair-like tentacles

reproduction by budding during hydroid

stage and release of gametes in medusae

FOOD HABITS
stages
Copepods; however, it tends to favor comb jellies and

other hydromedusae