bristle worms

Most people don’t spend very much time considering the coral reef at night. The daylight reef swarms with activity – fish and corals, along with other invertebrates of every shape and size. At night, the fish are mostly sleeping, but other creatures come out to play. One example: bristle worms. These stinging invertebrates hide in crevices during daylight hours, and emerge at night to clean detritus off the reef. The corals change by night as well. This green star polyp colony looks full and bushy by daylight…. … but those fuzzy polyps pull back into themselves almost completely within minutes after