Cartilaginous Fishes
In cartilaginous fishes, the mouth is always ____.
Ventral
What is the scientific name for jawless fishes?
Agnatha
What conditions are coral reefs sensitive to?
Temperature change, pollution, overfishing, ocean acidification
What do bony fishes use for buoyancy control?
Swim bladder
What is coral?
Coral is an animal that has a hard skeleton filled with soft, fleshy parts called polyps. The polyps are like mini jellyfish that live together in a colony.
What is a basic characteristic of a cartilaginous fish?
Placoid scales and paired fins
5-7 open gill slits
Spiracles in many species
Males in most species have claspers
What is the difference between hagfish and lampreys?
Hagfish feed on dead fish. Lampreys feed on living fish.
Hagfish are exclusively marine. Lampreys live in FW or SW.
What has caused corals to turn white?
The ocean temperature rising (by 2 degrees Celcius). It is a stress response.
What covers the gills on bony fishes?
The operculum
What lives inside the tissues of the polyp animal?
Microalgae
What kind of tail do cartilaginous fishes have?
Heterocercal
Instead of jaws, jawless fish have ____
Muscular, circular mouth with circular rows of teeth
What is one other threat to corals OTHER THAN bleaching?
People stepping on them, ocean acidification, pollution (chemical/oil spills)
What is unique about the vision of many bony fishes?
They can see in color.
Give an example of mutualism in a coral ecosystem and explain how the symbiotic relationship works.
Zooxanthellae (microalgae) and Corals: Zooxanthellae help corals by providing food for the corals and corals help zooxanthellae by giving them a place to live. Corals also provide zooxanthellae with carbon dioxide that they can use during photosynthesis.
b. Herbivores and Corals: Some fish that are herbivores eat macroalgae that is growing in competition with the coral. Parrot fish are a great example of a fish that helps corals in this way.
What is the difference between rays and skates?
Rays give birth to live young. Skates lay egg cases.
Rays have a spine at the base of the tail with a stinger. Skates have a fleshy tail with no spine.
Rays: plankton
Skates: mollusks
How do hagfishes fishes protect themselves when they are feeding?
They produce large quantities of mucus from skin glands.
Coral bleaching is the phenomenon directly attributed to __________, which is driven by _____.
Climate change; carbon dioxide
How do marine fish excrete excess seawater?
They excrete excess salts through the kidneys or intestine. Most marine fishes pass minimal amounts of concentrated urine to conserve water.
Coral does not have a medusa stage. What other species does? Name that species and how it catches its food.
Jellyfish, and they have poisonous stingers.
A scientist observes that a marine fish excretes very little urine. Why is this the case?
Bonus 100 points if you can name the toxic compound cartilaginous fish accumulate in their tissues from this.
Fish are constantly losing water and accumulating solutes. Because of this, they don't pee a lot and the pee is very concentrated.
Urea is a toxic compound that results from the breakdown of proteins.
What do other fishes have that jawless fishes lack?
(Hint: We know Jawless Fishes don't have jaws. Try harder)
Scales and paired fins
A group of coral is found bleached in an area with water at the right temperature. However, a large group of starfish is identified in the area as well. What happened to the coral? How do you know?
The starfish are parasites and stress the coral out, leading to the bleaching.
What is the difference between the intestine of a carnivorous fish vs a herbivorous fish?
The intestines of carnivorous fishes are short and straight
Intestines of herbivorous are longer and more coiled
Draw a food web of a coral reef ecosystem with four species and correctly placed arrows.
answers will vary.