Spot Feeding?
- Thread starter aksydnes
- Start date
Wow, that is an excellent question. One that I have never seen or heard being ask before.
Each polyp has its own mouth at the center of the oral disc, which is connected to its own gastrovascualar trac. For this reason alone, I would guess and say that external/secondary feeding is captured, digested and consumed by each individual polyp. Thus, I don't think they share that nutrition. It's just an opinion and aguess. I will pose the question to someone who wrote a book for a definitive answer.
Just my 2 cents
Mucho Reef
PS, some will disagree that not all polyp feed. I have always felt that just because you don't see a prey/capture response, doesn't mean the polyp doesn't feed. If light trigger poylps to open and darkness causes them to retract, I find it hard to believe that entire colonies are fully opened/expanded in the middle of the night for no reason at all.
Each polyp has its own mouth at the center of the oral disc, which is connected to its own gastrovascualar trac. For this reason alone, I would guess and say that external/secondary feeding is captured, digested and consumed by each individual polyp. Thus, I don't think they share that nutrition. It's just an opinion and aguess. I will pose the question to someone who wrote a book for a definitive answer.
Just my 2 cents
Mucho Reef
PS, some will disagree that not all polyp feed. I have always felt that just because you don't see a prey/capture response, doesn't mean the polyp doesn't feed. If light trigger poylps to open and darkness causes them to retract, I find it hard to believe that entire colonies are fully opened/expanded in the middle of the night for no reason at all.
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It's just a guess.
You could very well be right. But I would only be inclined to agree with the polyps that are connected by stolons/runners and not the single soloitary polyps which stand alone.
The plot thickens, LOL
The plot thickens, LOL
stoneroller
New member
I believe they would share "energy" at least to their nearest (proximate) neighbors; that's why they are considered colonial, not? I'd be interested in knowing how far the energy carries across the colony. We know that energy is transferred to a new budding polyp but is it from the closest "mother" polyp, from nearest neighbors, or from the colony as a whole?
This is a direct quote from Eric Borneman regarding the initial question in this thread.
"Depends - Some Palythoa are quite colonial with variable inter-polyp connection depending on the species. Others, like Zoanthus and the putative genus Protopalythoa, only share stolons or, in some cases, are even solitary and lose any stoloniferous connection. Stolons are just a cross-linked connective matrix and do not, so far as we know, allow for any or any significant amount of nutrient transfer. Most Zoanthus species as I believe you are probably referring to, I'm afraid, will not transfer much nutrition, if any, between polyps."
Translation- Stolons, ( the connective mass between polyps ), do not transfer any nutrients, if any, to other polyps within said colony.
toaksydnes, 2 thumbs up, that was an excellent question my friend.
"Depends - Some Palythoa are quite colonial with variable inter-polyp connection depending on the species. Others, like Zoanthus and the putative genus Protopalythoa, only share stolons or, in some cases, are even solitary and lose any stoloniferous connection. Stolons are just a cross-linked connective matrix and do not, so far as we know, allow for any or any significant amount of nutrient transfer. Most Zoanthus species as I believe you are probably referring to, I'm afraid, will not transfer much nutrition, if any, between polyps."
Translation- Stolons, ( the connective mass between polyps ), do not transfer any nutrients, if any, to other polyps within said colony.
toaksydnes, 2 thumbs up, that was an excellent question my friend.
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