#shorts

These beauties possess the same regenerative potential of the Hydra vulgaris (comparison in second clip). However these guys have one thing their brown cousins do not, symbiotic algae.
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Like the other symbionts I’ve posted, here the host reaps the benefits of the algae’s photosynthesis, and the algae is safe in protective vacuoles where predators and the Hydra’s digestive enzymes cannot get to it.
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This symbiosis is similar to that found in coral reefs. Some coral dies if it’s symbiotic algae is lost (for example coral bleaching). However, overpopulation with symbionts algae can also be detrimental to cnidarian health.
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These hydra have been observed expelling their green algae guests when food is available and they don’t require the photosynthesis any longer.
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Interestingly, if a Hydra loses its algae due to prolonged darkness, the Hydra can encourage the proliferation of the remaining algae and will be repopulated in a couple of days when the light returns.
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Cool paper on this can be found here:
Expulsion of Symbiotic Algae during Feeding by the Green Hydra – a Mechanism for Regulating Symbiont Density?

Yelena Fishman, Eliahu Zlotkin, and Daniel Sher *

PLoS One. 2008; 3(7): e2603.
Published online 2008 Jul 2. doi:10.1371journal.pone.0002603

Credit: @postgraduate_procrastination

Music: Ilya Truhanov
Skully and Mulder

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