When do many Great Barrier Reef corals spawn?

After full moons in late spring

How do algae help reef-building corals?

They provide food from sunlight

Coral Animals Trivia: 10 Questions With Answers

A coral reef may look like rock, but coral animals trivia shows it is built by millions of tiny polyps, each one an animal. Learn how corals feed at night, spawn together after full moons on the Great Barrier Reef and even grow in cold, dark waters off Norway.

Start Coral Animals Trivia

🎯 Daily Trivia Challenge • 🧠 10 Questions • ⏱️ 150 Seconds

Question 1 / 10 Time: 150s

Animal
What are corals?
Polyp
What is a coral polyp?
Skeleton
What do hard corals build their skeletons from?
Night
When do many coral polyps extend their tentacles to feed?
Spawn
When do many Great Barrier Reef corals spawn?
Soft
What do soft corals lack?
Cold
Where do cold-water coral reefs grow?
Algae
How do algae help reef-building corals?
Growth
How fast do many massive corals grow?
Age
How old can some deep-sea corals be?

Explanations: answer key for all 10 questions

Q1: What are corals?
Answer: Animals related to jellyfish
Each polyp has tentacles.
Q2: What is a coral polyp?
Answer: A tiny soft-bodied animal
Thousands form a colony.
Q3: What do hard corals build their skeletons from?
Answer: Calcium carbonate
Over time they form reefs.
Q4: When do many coral polyps extend their tentacles to feed?
Answer: At night
They catch tiny plankton.
Q5: When do many Great Barrier Reef corals spawn?
Answer: After full moons in late spring
It is a mass spawning event.
Q6: What do soft corals lack?
Answer: A hard stony skeleton
They sway with currents.
Q7: Where do cold-water coral reefs grow?
Answer: Deep waters such as off Norway
They live without sunlight.
Q8: How do algae help reef-building corals?
Answer: They provide food from sunlight
This partnership powers reefs.
Q9: How fast do many massive corals grow?
Answer: About 1 cm a year
Large reefs take thousands of years.
Q10: How old can some deep-sea corals be?
Answer: Over 4,000 years
Black corals are among the oldest.

Coral Animals Trivia – Tiny Builders of Giant Reefs

Corals are animals related to jellyfish and sea anemones. Each coral is made of tiny polyps, soft-bodied animals with tentacles, which live together in colonies. Hard corals build skeletons of calcium carbonate that form reefs over thousands of years.

Most reef-building corals host algae called zooxanthellae, which provide food from sunlight. At night, polyps extend their tentacles to catch plankton. Many corals spawn together after full moons, releasing clouds of eggs and sperm.

Not all corals live in warm, shallow seas. Cold-water corals form reefs in deep waters off Norway and elsewhere, and some deep-sea corals live for thousands of years. Warming seas, pollution and destructive fishing threaten corals worldwide.

What This Quiz Teaches

Ocean fans and students will enjoy these questions.

What corals are
How polyps feed
How corals reproduce
Where cold-water corals live
How old corals get

Did You Know?

Corals fluoresce under blue light.
Brain corals look like brains.
Fire coral is not a true coral.
Coral can be grown in nurseries.
Some corals sting other corals.