Catalog Number:
401223
Specimen Count:
1
Special Instructions:
Ask a staff person for assistance
Upper Level Taxonomy:
Animalia, Cnidaria, Anthozoa, Hexacorallia, Scleractinia, Pocilloporidae

Anthozoans (anemones and corals) have stem-like bodies that anchor to the ocean body or other surface. Tentacles radiate like petals around the top of the stem (anthozoa flower animals). Both their bodies and tentacles are hollow, opening into a mouth in the center of the flower. Anemones and corals capture food with their tentacles and push it into their mouths. While they mostly eat small, floating food (plankton), stingers (nematocytes) on their tentacles allow some anthozoans to consume larger prey (even fish or crabs) by stunning them first. Food travels from the mouth to the hollow space inside their bodies, where it is digested. Since they have only one opening, waste products are expelled back out their mouths. Some anthozoans benefit from a relationship with unicellular algae (mutualism). While the coral provides a safe place for the algae to live, the algae makes food by photosynthesizing.