Portuguese ManO War By Valerie Jean Ari Ramirez

Portuguese Man’O War By Valerie Jean Ari Ramirez

Table Of Content • • • What is a Portuguese Man’O War Where is it found? Characteristics Why is it important? Issues/dangers the Man’O War faces What does the Man’O War eat and what eats them? • How does it reproduce? • Photos/Videos • Bibliography

What is it? Most people mistake the Man’O war for a jellyfish but it is not. So what is it? Well the Man’O War isn’t even one animal, actually it is a colony of organisms that work together. The Man’O War belongs to the phylum of Cnidarians and it is a spectacular thing. It is made up of different polyps that cannot live with out each other. There are four main polyps and one polyp becomes the large gas filled top , a. k. a the Pneumatophore. The top floats above the water and can be in colors such as pink, purple or blue. When many people see the top they mistake the distance because as you see the top, the tentacles under can be as like as 50 feet. Speaking about the tentacles, they are the other three polyps. There are feeding tentacles (gastrozooids), defense tentacles (dactylozooids) and the reproductive tentacles (gonozooids). The tentacles are usually about 50 feet long but have been recorded to reach 165 feet! The Man-of-War is very dangerous however, it can rarely kill us humans but does cause excruciating pain!

Where is it found? The Portuguese Man O’ War can be found in many different locations. They live at the surface of the ocean. They can also be found anywhere in the open ocean, especially in warm sea water. They are most commonly found in the tropical and subtropical regions of the pacific and Indian oceans and in the northern Atlantic gulf stream. They travel in groups, sometimes they might travel along with thousands like them. The man O’ War has been found as far as the Bay of Fundy and the Hebrides.

Characteristics of Portuguese Man O’War • Characteristics: • Bilaterally symmetrical • It may be 9 to 30 centimeters long and may extend as much as 15 centimeters above water. • The dactylozooids make up the tentacles that are typically 30 ft in length, but they can be as long as 165 ft. • It is also invertebrate, which mean it has no backbone • Composed of four types of polyp – One polyp is a gas-filled bladder called the pneumatophore also know as the sail. This enables it to float. – The other three polyps are know as dactylozooid which is the defence, the gonozooid which is the reproduction system, and the gastrozooid which is where they feed.

Why is it important? The Man of War is not only important as a food source to crabs, but also are a source of defense for other animals. A gastropod mollusk called a Nudibranch also feeds on the Man’O War but after ingesting it the Nudibranch uses the nematocysts in their bodies for defense. Another animal that uses the Man’O war is the Nomeus gronorii also known as the Man-of-War fish. This fish can swiftly swim between the feeding tentacles and is somewhat immune to the venom. The fish uses the man of war for protection from predators that the Man-Of-War will kill and also feeds of leftover food that the Man’O war didn’t finish. Also, the man of war uses the fish as attraction for more food, so, these two work as a powerful team!

Dangers We couldn’t find an issue faced by the Man’O war but we discovered that from a sting, the Man’O war causes a human to experience muscle weakness and having trouble breathing. Another important thing about the Man’O war is that even when dead and washed up, the tentacles can still and are just as venomous at least up to a week after its death! Also, people that have gotten attacked by the Man’O war have often had incorrect medical treatment because they said they were stung by a jellyfish. It is very important to know what a Man’O war is because it isn’t a Jelly and requires special treatment!

What does the Portuguese Man O’war eat and what eats them? What do they eat? The Man O’war is a carnivore. They feeds on a wide variety of prey. The Portuguese Man-of-War eats small fish, sea snails, plankton and other small ocean animal. The man O’ war stings the small animals with its long tentacles. The poison called venom in the tentacles paralyzes the prey, that enables them to eat they prey. The poison cannot kill humans, but the sting can be very painful. What eats them? One such predator that eats the Man O’war is the pacific sand crab found in Hawaii. It capture the man O’war that have drifted into shallow waters. Other predators that are immune to the venom such as the sea slug, blanket octopus, loggerhead and leatherback sea turtles also eats the Man O’war but sometimes due to poor, improper trash disposal these turtles sometimes mistake plastic bags for the man O’war. After ingesting the plastic bags, the turtles can get sick and die.

How do the Man O’war reproduce? • The Man O’ war reproduce asexually. The gonozooids, which is where they reproduce have both the male and female parts which allows them to reproduce without a partner therefore it reproduce on its own. The man o’wars spawn together in large numbers, being either all males or all female, once together they release gametes into the water to be fertilized. Then each go through asexual budding to produce a new man o’war.

Photos

You. Tube Video • www. youtube. com/watch? v=ut 9 XX 96 XS 4 c • www. youtube. com/watch? v=lem 0 RAVz. VCM

Bibliography • http: //gardenofeaden. blogspot. com/2012/11/portuguese-man-ofwar-stings. html • http: //en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Portuguese_man_o'_war • http: //www. enchantedlearning. com/subjects/invertebrates/jellyfis h/Manofwar. shtml • http: //bioweb. uwlax. edu/bio 203/s 2008/niemi_riss/interactions. ht m • http: //www. dnr. sc. gov/marine/sertc/The%20 Portuguese%20 man. p df