• Question: What animals that not many people know about live in coral?

    Asked by coconut to Sean on 15 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Sean Clement

      Sean Clement answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      Well, where to start? There’s the Zooxanthellae (pronounced zoo-zan-thelly) to begin with which actually live within the flesh of the coral in symbiosis with it (meaning they have a relationship which is good for both the coral and the zooxanthellae providing it with over 90% of the food it needs to live.

      Then, not living inside the coral but within the coral skeleton are things like Christmas Tree worms. They look like colourful Christmas Trees (duh!) and burrow into the skeletons of large corals. If disturbed, they quickly retract back into their burrow so as not to be eaten! Smart move.

      Lots of small fish use gaps in Corals as a type of shelter from larger animals that otherwise can’t fit into them. Sometimes, you can see hundreds of fish living within one small gap between two bits of Coral… A bit cramped but hey! at least no-one ‘s being eaten!

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