Acalycigorgia Gorgonian - Skeleton construction

[World Citizen]

Hi,

I have a Acalycigorgia gorgonian, and was taking some pictures with a magnifying glas. When zooming and cropping the photo, I noticed the way the skeleton is build.

This is crazy. I have never seen this before. The branches are build up by rice looking particles which start of white en get darker and darker. It seems they sprout from the bottom of each tentacles of a polyp.

If anyone has anything to say about it, and how I can google or find the terminology of these particles, thanks. I would love to learn.

Build up of skeleton.

Shot of a part.

Polyp

 

[i cant think]

Hi,

I have a Acalycigorgia gorgonian, and was taking some pictures with a magnifying glas. When zooming and cropping the photo, I noticed the way the skeleton is build.

This is crazy. I have never seen this before. The branches are build up by rice looking particles which start of white en get darker and darker. It seems the sprout from the bottom of the each tentacles of a polyp.

If anyone has anything to say about it, and how I can google or find the terminology of these particles, thanks. I would love to learn.

Build up of skeleton.

Shot of a part.

Polyp

It makes sense they come from the start of the polyp - the polyps build these skeletons in a shell like manner to protect themselves from predators
Those photos are beautiful though and really show how complex these ‘simple’ animals truly are. The darkening of the colours look to be where Zooxanthellae is collecting (From the colour of the polyps I assume this is a Photosynthetic gorgonian however I could be wrong).

 

[World Citizen]

It makes sense they come from the start of the polyp - the polyps build these skeletons in a shell like manner to protect themselves from predators
Those photos are beautiful though and really show how complex these ‘simple’ animals truly are. The darkening of the colours look to be where Zooxanthellae is collecting (From the colour of the polyps I assume this is a Photosynthetic gorgonian however I could be wrong).

Thank you. It's known as a filterfeeder, but... I have deliberately placed it part in the light and part in the shadow. Moderate to semi-high flow. I was planning to keep an eye out on differences between the light conditions.

I don't understand how this works. It seems they poop out a particle and they all end up in alignment. It's crazy. Why do they stack up so nice.
(I hope to take better pics with anything I can find soon)

They seem to start out within the flesh.

 

[World Citizen]

I was so hoping for someone to jump in. I would love to learn. Anything.

 

[elysics]

The term is spicule, soft corals and some sponges have them too

Some of them leave behind a pile of needles or grains like here when they die

 

[World Citizen]

The term is spicule, soft corals and some sponges have them too

Some of them leave behind a pile of needles or grains like here when they die

Thank you Sir! That is very helpful. I found a summery on a site, and am going to get into is deeper.

Link to researchgate.net

I also placed a camera on it and I am tracking if he is open or closed. I plot this against other graphs in my aquarium and finally hope to achieve succes with this Coral.

Thanks again @elysics.

 

[DaJMasta]

I don't have any real insight to this, but I assume rather than "pooping" out the particles, they probably are grown by the animal as polymers, so there's some kind of starting point that is continually acted on as it grows to get longer, then either there is some ending limit of the size of the compound involved or the growth tip area moves beyond where it is and that region just stops growing.

It's also worth mentioning that the growth around the polyps would be fairly shortlived at least in most cases, as gorgonians grow as a stalk with polyps and not as a very long, stalked polyp, so it could even be that some element of the structure is present in the stalk and this is just the mechanism it breaks out to form a polyp by.

A little factoid that could end up pointing towards some coral growth/morphology papers is that gorgonians have a skeleton based on Gorgonin, a protein that gives them their sort of hybrid rigid/flexible skeleton that differs from most hard and soft corals.

 

[World Citizen]

I don't have any real insight to this, but I assume rather than "pooping" out the particles, they probably are grown by the animal as polymers, so there's some kind of starting point that is continually acted on as it grows to get longer, then either there is some ending limit of the size of the compound involved or the growth tip area moves beyond where it is and that region just stops growing.

It's also worth mentioning that the growth around the polyps would be fairly shortlived at least in most cases, as gorgonians grow as a stalk with polyps and not as a very long, stalked polyp, so it could even be that some element of the structure is present in the stalk and this is just the mechanism it breaks out to form a polyp by.

A little factoid that could end up pointing towards some coral growth/morphology papers is that gorgonians have a skeleton based on Gorgonin, a protein that gives them their sort of hybrid rigid/flexible skeleton that differs from most hard and soft corals.

Thanks!

 

[Hats_]

oh hey, that name and picture is familiar lol. didnt expect to see you here haha

 

[World Citizen]

oh hey, that name and picture is familiar lol. didn't expect to see you here haha

Sure thing. This is a great place for info, just like our local one.

 

[Hats_]

Sure thing. This is a great place for info, just like our local one.

true, must say this one gives a bit more of a fresh perspective on things

 

[World Citizen]

true, must say this one gives a bit more of a fresh perspective on things

And the narrative is often more pleasant.

 

[Hats_]

And the narrative is often more pleasant.

yea, some people there are a bit set in their way to put it lightly, others just plain rude