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 the
anemone as well as
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 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 go after hatching, 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 the
most common turtles
in the Mediterranean,
the oceans around the
U.S., and in the
coastal ocean waters
of Brazil. In the
Atlantic, their range is from Newfoundland to Argentina, including the Gulf of
Mexico, and the 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 heartshaped reddish brown shell. The usual life span is 30 - 50 years.
Loggerheads have powerful jaws designed to crush shellfish. They eat mollusks,
such as shrimp, horseshoe crabs, blue crabs, clams, and mussels. They also eat
invertebrates and some types of sea grasses.
Loggerheads can see well underwater and are believed to have an acute sense
of smell. They breathe air and when active must swim to the surface after a few
minutes. When they are resting, they can remain underwater for as long as two
hours. Loggerheads migrate the breadth of the Pacific Ocean, often traveling
along ocean currents.
Loggerhead turtles are a threatened species. Their population has declined as
they drown in fishing nets and as land animals, such as racoons, cats and dogs,
prey upon their eggs. Development also harms turtles by encroaching upon their
beaches and confusing the innate directional signals of hatchlings.
Concepts from Biology
The term the food chain describes the fact that each living creature survives by
feeding on plants or other animals. Plants are always the base of the food chain.
The animals that eat the plants are one link up the food chain. When the planteating animal is killed and eaten by another animal, it is said that the animal who
is eating is higher on the food chain than the animal being eaten. In the ocean
the base of the food chain is phytoplankton or algae. These are plants that live
near the surface of the water (to get maximum sun). The term "plankton" comes
from the Greek word "planktos" which means "drifting." Phytoplankton range from
microscopic organisms to seaweed. Phytoplankton are eaten by small fish and
by zooplankton, a class of plankton-eating microscopic animals that includes
single celled animals, larvae of larger animals, and tiny crustaceans. The
zooplankton are then eaten by small fish and some whales. The small fish are
eaten by larger fish and those are eaten by even larger fish and so on up the
food chain. A species is at the top of its food chain if there are no animals who kill
and eat it regularly. For example sharks, lions, human beings and elephants are
said to be at the top of their food chains. Whales were at the top of their food
chain until man started to hunt and kill them.
An animal that catches another animal and eats it is called a predator. Most fish
are predators. Predators must have some advantage over their prey, the animals
they eat, in order to capture them. For example, the predator must be faster or
must use surprise and ambush. Some predators just sit and wait. Stonefish and
scorpionfish are covered with small patches of bright color that look like a colony
of algae. The rest of their body is camouflaged to look like the sea floor. Small
fish come to eat the algae not recognizing the larger outlines of the predator.
Corals are also predators that sit still and wait for their prey. Their tentacles have
a poison that kills or injures its prey and draws it into the coral's mouth. Some
predators, such as the moray eel, hide in holes or tunnels in the coral reefs and
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,
A fish with eyespot
disruptive patterns (which break up the outline of a fish
diversionary
markings
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), countershading, in which the fish looks dark on top
and light on the bottom, hiding, 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 live in a very
close, long term relationships. This is called a symbiosis. Some of the different
types of symbiotic relationships are: mutualism, commensalism, parasitism, and
predation. Mutualism occurs when two different animal species help each other.
Here are just a few examples. (1) Clownfish 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
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. Zooxanthellae is a type of
algae that lives 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 commensalistic relationship between two species occurs when one benefits
but the other does not, although the latter is not harmed by the interaction. A
remora fish is often seen attached to the bodies of sharks or whales. These fish
get a free ride as well as a free meal from the scraps left over when the shark or
whale eats, but the presence of the remora does not interfere with or harm the
animal it is attached to.
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.
An important feature of the relationships between individuals of different species
is that often, relationships that 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. 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. There are more than just fish that live here, however. Many varieties of
crab, shrimp, clam, oyster, starfish, sponge, sea anemone, octopus, eel, worm,
and snail also make the reef their home. Coral reefs can be found off the coasts
of only two states in the U.S., Hawaii and Florida.
Corals are simple animals, whose bodies, called polyps, are soft fleshy bags
with finger-like tentacles ringing a mouth. At the other end the polyp attaches to a
hard surface such as a rock or the hard exterior of another coral polyp. Polyps
are thumb sized or smaller. Corals are open only at one end. They do not have
hands, eyes, ears, brains, or bones but their tentacles are loaded with tiny
stingers. Corals are carnivorous and eat zooplankton.
Corals reproduce in two ways. Some corals produce sex cells (eggs and
sperm). These develop as outgrowths on the inside of the polyp and are pushed
out through the mouth into open water. The eggs are usually fertilized by the
sperm in the open sea, but this can also occur inside the polyp as sea water
carrying sperm enters its mouth. The fertilized egg develops into a larvae which
swims around for several days or even as long as several weeks. When it
attaches to a solid surface it will develop into a polyp.
A second method of reproduction is called budding in which a bump forms on a
polyp. A new coral polyp will grow and form a new limestone cup attached to the
cup of the old polyp. When the old polyp dies, the new polyp continues to grow.
Coral polyps die if the sea water becomes too salty or too warm or if there is
pollution in the water. When a coral polyps dies, the zooxanthellae algae in the
coral polyp also die. The coral then becomes white because its color is derived
from the algae it hosts. This is called coral bleaching. Bleached reefs can
recover, but it takes a long time.
Sponges are animals, although they may look like plants. They feed on bacteria,
other organisms, and inorganic matter in the water as it passes through the
sponge. The sponge acts as a filter, cleaning the water around coral reefs.
Anemones are animals that attach to coral, to rocks or sometimes to the shells of
crabs. They have poisonous tentacles which sting their pray and draw them into
the anemone's mouth. A star fish eats by shoving its stomach out through its
mouth. The stomach covers the food and softens it with its digestive juices.
When the food is soft enough the starfish takes the food into its stomach which it
pulls back into its body. When a starfish loses an arm it simply grows another
one.
Finding Nemo questions
Energy flows through ecosystems in one direction, usually from the sun, to the
photosynthetic organisms, to herbivores, to carnivores, to decomposers. Energy is a
necessary component of every living thing.
1. All living things require energy for LIFE FUNCTIONS. Name five of the life
functions.
a. ___________________________________
b. ___________________________________
c. ___________________________________
d. ___________________________________
e. ___________________________________
2. Energy is transferred through ecosystems by means of food chains and food webs.
Define food chain?
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3. 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
Answer inside the box
Grasshopper
Bacteria
Bird
Bobcat
4. Write one or more paragraphs describing some of the relationships in a foodweb.
In your answer be sure to:
a. Identify a 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 foodweb.
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5. The final link of a food chain is a saprophytic organism (eats dead, decaying
material). Why are these organisms essential to the food chain?
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6. List 5 adaptations predators must have to be successful. Use examples from the
movie.
a. ____________________________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________________________
c. ____________________________________________________________
d. ____________________________________________________________
e. ____________________________________________________________
7. What is the difference between Phytoplankton and Zooplankton, why are they
both Plankton.
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8. Define the terms PREDATOR and PREY. Use specific examples from the movie.
a. ____________________________________________________________
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b. ____________________________________________________________
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9. Define symbiosis. Describe three symbiotic relationships from the movie between
animals on the coral reef.
a. Define-_____________________________________________________
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i. ______________________________________________________
ii. ______________________________________________________
iii. ______________________________________________________
10. Why does a predator actually help the species of its prey?
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11. Do sharks and the fish they eat have a symbiotic relationship? Explain. ________
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12. Nemo’s stripes help him survive in the wild. Give two examples from the movie
of how an animal’s coloration helps it survive in the wild.
a. ____________________________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________________________
13. Abiotic factors are the physical and chemical factors in the environment on which
life depends. List six abiotic factors from the movie.
a. ____________________________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________________________
c. ____________________________________________________________
d. ____________________________________________________________
e. ____________________________________________________________
f. ____________________________________________________________
14. Define the following terms and give examples from the movie.
Commensalism
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Mutualism
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Parasitism
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Saprophytism
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15. Identify three herbivores and three carnivores from the movie.
Herbivores
a. ____________________________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________________________
c. ____________________________________________________________
Carnivores
d. ____________________________________________________________
e. ____________________________________________________________
f. ____________________________________________________________
Coral Reefs
1. Is coral a plant or an animal?
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2. What is the largest barrier reef in the world and how large is it?
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3. What are the two methods by which coral can reproduce?
a. __________________________________________________
b. __________________________________________________
4. Describe the symbiotic relationship that exists between the coral polyp and the
algae.
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5. Give three examples from the movie of organisms that use camouflage as an
adaptation to survive.
a. ____________________________________________
b. ____________________________________________
c. ____________________________________________
6. Is a sea sponge a plant or an animal? ____________________________________
7. How do sea sponges eat?
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8. What are sea anemones and how do they eat?
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9. How does a sea star eat?
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10. What would happen if another fish eats one of the arms of a sea star?
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11. A tourist boat accidentally dumps its fuel in to the water
around a coral reef. Write an essay of 75 words
describing one or more possible consequences for the
coral. Include how this would affect the coral reef food chain.
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