Volume: 2,61 m3
Lighting: Low
Temperature: 14/16ºC
Zonation: 15-25m Infralitoral-Circalitoral
This tank shows some representatives of the different groups of invertebrates to better understand this group of marine animals. Invertebrates are animals that do not have a backbone, they are terrestrial and aquatic. Within the invertebrates we can differentiate two groups: arthropods and non-arthropods.
Arthropods have an external skeleton that covers the body, formed by a series of structural units that are articulated among themselves, and that are grouped, so as to divide the body into different regions. In addition, they have articulated appendages, a characteristic that has given them their name, and that allows them to move. Many of these marine invertebrates spend part of their lives (larval stage) or all of their lives as part of the plankton.
Crustaceans are, after insects, the group of arthropods that has had the most evolutionary success, if we judge by the number of existing species and the diversity of environments in which they are found. Sharpen your eyes to be able to identify some hermit crabs and some shrimp in this community.
Of the non-arthropod invertebrates we will focus on the most representative groups, such as sponges, very simple organisms, without differentiated tissues, shaped like a sac and a system of internal channels and openings or pores that allow water to circulate inside, and therefore in exchange for breathing and feeding. Representatives of cnidarians such as the anemone, the gorgonian and the sea tomato are also shown. All cnidarians have a common defense system consisting of stinging cells called cnidocytes. Look at the palm trees that decorate this community, despite looking like plants, they are actually annelids called sea dusters, a group of worms that live inside a calcareous tube and with a crown of gill filaments around their mouths that allows, in turn, to breathe and ingest the food suspended by filtration.
There are also some echinoderms, exclusively marine invertebrates, with a calcareous skeleton formed by more or less developed plates, and spines that are distributed throughout the body. They are the well-known starfish, sea urchins, holothurians or sea cucumbers and brittle stars or false stars.
