. The Biological bulletin. Biology; Zoology; Biology; Marine Biology. 162 G. M. PARKER Individuals of^A. pulchella from natural populations living on dead coral skeletons and rocks were offered to many different reef fishes in Hawaii. The butterflyfishes Chaetodon auriga and C. unimaculatus readily ate these sea anemones, with each fish consuming about five sea anemones at one feeding. The tentacle crowns and upper parts of the body column of sea anemones were preferred, and defecation occurred within 12 to 24 hours after feeding. The nudibranch Berghia major was found in association with natu
. The Biological bulletin. Biology; Zoology; Biology; Marine Biology. 162 G. M. PARKER Individuals of^A. pulchella from natural populations living on dead coral skeletons and rocks were offered to many different reef fishes in Hawaii. The butterflyfishes Chaetodon auriga and C. unimaculatus readily ate these sea anemones, with each fish consuming about five sea anemones at one feeding. The tentacle crowns and upper parts of the body column of sea anemones were preferred, and defecation occurred within 12 to 24 hours after feeding. The nudibranch Berghia major was found in association with natural populations of yl. pulchella in Hawaii. It may be that A. pulchella is a significant prey item for B. major, as nudibranchs laid egg strings close to these sea anemones. The nudibranch limited its feeding to sea anemone tentacles. One nudibranch consumed the tentacles of three sea anemones (approx. 120 tentacles) daily. Tentacles were clipped off near the oral disk. Nudibranchs defecated within 24 hours after feeding. B. major differs from the fish in that it stores zooxanthellae and nematocysts in its cerata. Zooxanthellae stored in the cerata are presumed to be photosynthetically active to some extent, as nudibranchs consumed less oxygen in the light than in the dark (Parker, unpubl.). Fecal material from the three predatory fish and the nudibranch consisted mostly of zooxanthellae. Light microscopic examination of feces showed that fecal zoox- anthellae appeared intact and that many of the cells were in the process of dividing (Fig. 1). Motile zooxanthellae arose within a few hours from defecated zooxanthellae when feces were placed under bright light. Photosynthetic ability of fecal zooxanthellae Photosynthetic rates of fecal zooxanthellae from the puffer .4. meleagris are shown in Table I. Assimilation numbers, corrected for dark heterotrophic fixation, of fecal zooxanthellae are similar to those obtained for the freshly isolated Figure 1. Light microsc
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