Coral+Polyps

Coal polyps is an animal with no backbone like a jellyfish. Polyps have clear bodies and white skeletons. They use their arms (like tentacles) to catch food (zooplankton) and feed their tiny mouth which is located in the centre. It is also responsible for our coral reef and is one of the smallest animals in the world.

Coral Polyps has a nervous system and if one is nervous and uncomfortable, it will connect with other coral polyps which can also affect them and the whole coral reef. For polyps to survive they need zooxanthellae, which gives oxygen to polyps (to them the oxygen is sugar). Zooxanthellae is a plant that is part of the coral polyps, they are algae that grows in the coral polyps. For the algae to grow they need sunlight and algae also gives the polyps their huge range of colours. Zooxanthellae algae gives the coral polyps 90 per cent of nutrients for it to grow.

When the coral polyps die they leave behind a hard, stony structure that over time it will built up to form a coral reef. Coral polyps is very important to our coral reef because it forms the coral reef when it dies and without it the coral reef will don’t be safe in the future. Michelle Dam and Kristy Nguyen