Class Hydrozoa: Class Hydrozoa is a class of individually very small, predatory animals, some solitary and some colonial, most living in salt water. The colonies of the colonial species can be large, and in some cases the specialized individual animals cannot survive outside the colony. A few genera within this class live in fresh water.
By-the-wind sailors (Velella velella)
A cosmopolitan genus of free-floating hydrozoans that live on the surface of the open ocean. They eat many small organisms. They move in a colony.
A cosmopolitan genus of free-floating hydrozoans that live on the surface of the open ocean. They eat many small organisms. They move in a colony.
Class Scyphozoa: Scyphozoans have no durable hard parts, including no head, no skeleton, and no specialized organs for respiration or excretion. This class reproduces asexually through fertilization. they eat a variety of crustaceans and fish, which they capture using stinging cells called nematocysts.
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Aurelia (the moon jelly) They live in the ocean and prey on zooplankton |
Cyanea (the lion's mane jelly).
Is the largest species of jellyfish. It lives in the ocean and preys on mostly zooplankton and other things. |
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Class Anthozoa: have a “polyp” body form which, as adults, is usually anchored (sessile) with the mouth facing upward. They have two cell layers – an outer protective epidermis and an inner gastrodermis. They are carnivores capturing prey as it drifts through their tentacles. Males and females release sperm and eggs into the water where fertilization occurs.
Sea Anemones- They live in the ocean, and they eat small organisms by shocking them with their bodies.
Corals- They live in the ocean on coral reefs and they eat zooplankton as well.