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Finding Nemo Viewing Guide
Some of the Animals Who Appear in the Movie
Clownfish -- Nemo and Marlin belong to one of about 27 species of clownfish ( Amphiprion ocellaris ).
Clownfish are small and often brightly colored. They
belong to the damselfish family. They are 2 - 5 inches
(5 - 12.5 cm) long. They live in tropical waters.
Clownfish are often sheltered by an anemone with whom they have a symbiotic relationship. In fact,
most of the scientific literature refers to them as "anemone fish." Clownfish are
not immune to the poison in the anemone's tentacles and at first appear to be
stung by them. Scientists believe that by dancing up against the tentacles for a time clownfish develop a protective mucous covering. Clownfish eat leftovers from fish consumed by anemone, planktonic crustaceans, and algae. Clownfish also eat the dead tentacles of their host anemone. Eggs are laid in large batches, usually near and sometimes within the host anemone. Clownfish are not eaten by man but their bright colors make them popular for saltwater aquariums. Divers have damaged many reefs looking for prime specimens. Clownfish live in the tropical
parts of the Pacific and Indian Oceans or where warm, tropical waters are carried
by currents, such as the east coast of Japan.
Pacific Blue Tang -- Dorey's real life models ( Paracanthurus hepatus ) are
members of the surgeonfish family. They were given this name because sharp,
moveable spines on both sides of their tails were thought to resemble surgeons' scalpels. These spines are for defense. A fisherman trying to hold a blue tang
can suffer a deep and painful wound if the fish tries to escape by giving a twist of
its tail. The fish are blue with a yellow tail and a black stripe along the upper
portion of their body. They live on zooplankton and can grow to be about 12
inches (31 cm) long. Pacific blue tangs are found in the central and Indo-Pacific
from Africa's east coast to Micronesia. A different species of surgeonfish, found in
the Atlantic Ocean and without a yellow tail,
is also called a blue tang. It eats only algae.
Loggerhead Sea Turtles -- Usually about 3
feet (1 m) in length and weighing 350 to
400 pounds (182 kg) loggerhead sea turtles
( Caretta caretta ) reach maturity at between 16 and 40 years. Sightings of 5 foot long
turtles weighing as much as 1000 pounds
have been recorded. Loggerheads mate in
late March through early June. Eggs are laid throughout the summer in shallow pits
dug in open beaches. After laying her eggs
the female turtle covers them with sand and leaves. Biologists are not sure where
juvenile turtles grow, but it is thought they inhabit floating islands of seaweed where they feed and grow to young adult size.
Loggerheads live in most of the tropical and temperate coastal waters around the globe. They are, for example, the most common turtles in the Mediterranean, in the oceans around the U.S., and in the
coastal ocean waters of Brazil etc. In the Atlantic, their range is from
Newfoundland to Argentina, including the Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea. Their major nesting beaches in the United States are in South Carolina, Georgia,
and Florida.
The loggerhead is named for its disproportionately large head (when compared with other turtles), which may measure 9 inches wide (25 cm). It has a heart-
shaped reddish brown shell. The usual life span is 30 - 50 years.
ambush their prey as it swims by. There are as many different strategies for catching prey as there are predators in the ocean. The most efficient and fearsome predator of all is man who, through livestock raising, fish farming, hunting and fishing, preys upon more species than any other animal.
Most species in the ocean are also prey to other animals. Corals, for example, are eaten by parrotfish, butterfly fish and a starfish called the crown of thorns. In one day, a single crown of thorns starfish can eat all the coral polyps in an area the size of a dollar bill. Most species that are prey to others also have strategies to avoid being captured. These include speed, camouflage , disruptive patterns (which break up the outline of a fish and make it harder for predators to see it) and eyespots (markings on various parts of the body that look like eyes which take attention away from the fish's head), counter- shading, in which the fish looks dark on top and light on the bottom (contrary to what other fish expect in an environment in which light comes down from the surface of the water), hiding, schooling, and dispersal. Dispersal means having many young and dispersing them over a wide area so that some will survive to carry on the species. Often, the defenses employed by prey animals are aimed at preserving the species rather than individual members of the species. Just as predators employ many different strategies for catching prey, there are many different strategies for avoiding capture.
Scavengers are creatures who keep the environment clean by eating the flesh and bone that predators leave behind. Scavengers don't usually kill their own prey. In the ocean, scavengers such as shrimp, crabs, and sea cucumbers keep the ocean floor clean by eating bits and pieces of fish that the predators leave behind.
All animals constantly interact with other animals and plants. Some of the different types of relationships are: symbiotic, commensal, parasitic and predatory. Symbiosis occurs when two different animal species help each other. Here are just a few examples. (1) Clownfishes live within the stinging tentacles of anemones. The anemone provides protection and food for the clownfish who in turn cleans the anemone of debris. Clownfish may even swim out onto the reef and with their bright colors lure other fish to their host anemone to be stung and trapped in the tentacles. (2) When a hermit crab carries an anemone on its shell, little fish won't bite the hermit crab for fear of being poisoned and eaten by the anemone. The anemone gets a free ride to places in which it can find new sources of food. (The hermit crab knows that the anemones protect it. When the hermit crab changes its shell, it will stroke the anemones on its old shell to get them to move to the new shell.) (3) Several types of fish clean the bodies of other fish, eating parasites and dead scales. One partner gets a meal and the other stays clean and healthy. Fish called the cleaning wrasses are visited by other fish
A fish with eyespot diversionary markings
who allow them to go over their bodies, into their mouths and out their gills to clean them. Fish line up at "cleaning stations" waiting to be cleaned by other fish. (4) Algae and coral polyps also serve one another. The zooxanthellae , a type of algae, live within coral polyps. The zooxanthellae are nourished by gasses (carbon dioxide, nitrogen, and phosphorus) produced as waste products by the coral. The presence of the algae increases the speed with which these waste products are removed from the polyp as well as the rate at which the hard outer skeleton of the polyp is created. Corals also gain advantage from the oxygen and nutrients produced by their zooxanthellae through photosynthesis. In fact, reefs are built only where there are plentiful zooxanthellae in the living tissues of stony corals.
A commensal relationship between two species occurs when one benefits but the other does not, although the latter is not harmed by the interaction.
A "parasite" attaches to a host and obtains nourishment but does not kill it. However, a parasitic relationship is not good for the host since the parasite takes nourishment from the host's blood or in other ways. In addition, some parasites carry diseases that can harm or even kill the host.
Domestication occurs when one animal or plant is grown by another and harvested for food. Domestication is a type of symbiosis in which the farmer cultivates and tends to the domesticated plant or animal and either eats it or uses something produced by the plant or animal. Even when domesticated plants or animals are eaten, enough seeds or breeding animals are retained for the survival of the herd or flock.
An important feature of the relationships between individuals of different species is that often, relationships which are predatory on the individual level may be symbiotic on the species level. In this way lions unwittingly aid the preservation of the species that they hunt by killing off the ill, the weak and the genetically defective, thus maintaining the health and vitality of the herd.
Corals and Coral Reefs
Coral reefs are the largest animal-made structures in nature rivaled only by the megalopolises created by man. The most extensive coral reef, the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia, is more than 1,250 miles (2,000 kilometers) long.
Coral reefs grow in clean, salty, shallow water (less than 150 feet deep) where there is a lot of sunlight and warm weather. Almost all coral reefs are found near the equator.
Coral reefs support thousands of different species of animals and plants. It is estimated that 5,000 to 6,000 different species of fish live on the Great Barrier Reef. But there are more than just fish. Many varieties of crab, shrimp, clam,
Finding Nemo questions
Energy flows through ecosystems in one direction, usually from the sun, to the photosynthetic organisms (autotrophs), and then throught heterotrophic organisms (organisms that can’t make their own food from sunlight or chemicals) in the following order: herbivores, to carnivores, to decomposers. Energy is a necessary component of every living thing.
- All living things require energy for LIFE FUNCTIONS. Name 5 of the life functions. a. ___________________________________ b. ___________________________________ c. ___________________________________ d. ___________________________________ e. ___________________________________
- Energy is transferred through ecosystems by means of food chains and food webs. Define food chain?
- Illustrate a food chain from the movie Finding Nemo using arrows to show the direction of material and energy flow. Identify producers , primary consumer , secondary consumer , and decomposer. Example: Grass Grasshopper Bird Bobcat
Answer inside the box Bacteria
- Write one or more paragraphs describing some of the relationships in this food
web. In your answer be sure to: a. Identify the carnivore from the food web (Bruce?). b. Describe a complete path of energy from the sun to that carnivore. c. Explain why decomposers are necessary in this food web.
- The final link of a food chain is a saprophytic organism or bacteria that decays.
Why are these organisms essential to the food chain?
- List 5 adaptations predators must have to be successful. Use examples from the
movie. a. ____________________________________________________________ b. ____________________________________________________________ c. ____________________________________________________________ d. ____________________________________________________________ e. ____________________________________________________________
- What is the difference between Phytoplankton and Zooplankton, why are they
both Plankton.
- Define the following terms and give examples from the movie.
Commensalism
Mutualism
Parasitism
Saprophytism
- Identify three herbivores and three carnivores from the movie.
Herbivores a. ____________________________________________________________ b. ____________________________________________________________ c. ____________________________________________________________ Carnivores d. ____________________________________________________________ e. ____________________________________________________________ f. ____________________________________________________________
Coral Reefs
- Is coral a plant or an animal?
- What is the largest barrier reef in the world and how large is it?
- What are the two methods by which coral can reproduce? a. __________________________________________________ b. __________________________________________________
- Describe the symbiotic relationship that exists between the coral polyp and the algae.
- Give three examples from the movie of organisms that use camouflage as an adaptation to survive. a. ____________________________________________ b. ____________________________________________ c. ____________________________________________
