Coral Reef: Magic of the Indo-Pacific (Korallenriff: Magie des Indopazifiks)

Surrounded by some of the most beautiful islands of the world,

the coral triangle is located in the Pacific Ocean.

Between the Philippines, New Guinea, and Indonesia,

a wondrously and fantastic undersea world does exist.

In the bright water,

the many different colours of the fish and corals

illuminate with their collective power.

Along the shore and in the flat water, a huge landscape spreads out,

built up by tiny creatures, piece by piece, over millions of years.

Awe-inspiring.

These ancient formations extend to the seabed.

Every cubic metre of these coral reefs is home

to countless species, animals, and plants.

Here, evolution found a unique place

in which big, small, dangerous, and bizarre creatures

could exist today.

They are prevalent not only in the coral triangle

but also in many other parts of the world.

In almost no other part of the world

you can discover what you marvel at here.

All species live in perfect accordance with the others.

What used to be paltry, sandy ground,

today, is a symbol for variety and natural plenty.

So come with us

and let's visit the universe of the corals.

The magic world of the corals

is put together by hundreds and thousands of creatures.

Such diversified games of nature

are only found in a few parts of the world.

The Great Barrier Reef off the Australian coast

is probably the most famous coral reef.

But in the waters between Indonesia, the Philippines, and New Guinea,

a coral triangle spreads, which has the biggest marine diversity.

Five point seven million square kilometres are covered

by this marine dripping point.

This region is the home of three quarters of all coral species.

In contrast, the Caribbean is the home of not even 10 percent of all corals.

This nameless variety makes the coral triangle

a fantastic and amazing landscape under water.

The waters offshore are not only edged by the whopping coral formations,

they are also occupied by thousands of marine creatures.

The warm water bodies of the Indo-Pacific are the perfect environment

for small, big, predacious, and peaceful fish.

Even more marine creatures found a home between the coral canyons

in countless caves and the cantilevered seaweed meadows.

Although most of those species are not known by people,

the reefs' variety would be much poorer.

More than 2,000 types of different coral fish can be found

in the colourful reefs of the triangle.

Hawaii, also known as a natural paradise, and praised for its variety in species,

does not even have 500 types.

The unique conditions of the Pacific Sea

did not only attract countless common fish,

they also launched complete new species.

These have a scientific name of an endemic species

and glamorise the reef and make it one of a kind.

It was a long and windy road

until the reef turned out to be what it is today.

The beginnings of this picturesque undersea world

are hidden deeply in the history of geology.

The coral triangle borders on the world's most active volcanic region,

the Pacific Ring of Fire.

This huge chain of volcanoes with its chimneys and volcano funnels

spreads out from South America to Alaska

and from Alaska to Japan and New Zealand.

But only a few of these volcanoes are located on terra firma.

Most of them are on the seabed.

It is here where tectonic plates are pushed one below the other

and finally are fused at the mantle of the Earth.

The constant eruptions and ejection of minerals

and other materials over millions of years

led to the thousands of islands along the Ring of Fire.

Close to the coral triangle,

countless islands were formed after eruptions

and the following slow stacking of volcanic rock.

Those islands surrounded by shallow water made it possible for corals

with their amazing beauty and variety of fish

to take up residence in that area.

The beauty of the coral triangle is beyond controversy,

but it is also due to the perfect conditions of living

for marine animals of all types.

The basis of food for about 120 million people

who make their living from fishing and other reef resources

on the bordering islands.

One of the best known residents of the coral reef is the anemone fish.

The anemone fish are a specious species

but only two of the 29 species are called clownfish.

In spite of everything, the exponents of the anemone fish

are known as clownfish to almost everybody,

not least caused by the adventures of a small, animated clownfish father

searching for his son.

He spends his life almost solely in and around an anemone.

The tentacles of the sea anemone provide this little fellow a welcome protection

from predacious animals and hunters.

As a recompense, this brave fish banishes other dodges

such as butterfly fish or filefish

who like the taste of the sea anemone.

You might think sea anemones are plants, but they are animals.

They are even able to change their place of location.

However, this act is very stressful for the animal,

which is normally deep-seated in the ground

to fish food out of the water with its tentacles.

Most of the time, the colonies of the anemone fish

are located right in the middle of the picturesque variety

of the coral reefs.

In terms of strong undersea drifts,

the countless jetties, drains, and reformations

offer a natural protection from the forces of nature.

As he is a bad swimmer,

this safeness is highly appreciated by the anemone fish.

The next resident weaving through the hillsides and gardens of the corals

is not as peculiar as the shy anemone fish.

To linger almost his entire life in an anemone

would never cross the mind of an anthias.

The anthias form some of the biggest shoals

in the coral reefs worldwide.

Hundreds, up to thousands of these animals build groups

to hunt oceanic plankton,

which is the nourishment of most small fish.

These gigantic shoals add immediately an orange-red colour to the reef

and include lots of smaller unions.

Although the few males lead the unions of shoals,

the majority are the females.

This is caused by the fact that all anthias are born female.

There are a lot of differences in size and marking in between the genders.

Scientists call that a gender dimorphism,

but as our eyes only can see the orange-red colour

of the young females in such a big shoal,

these dimorphisms are not really recognised.

The females stay in their harems until the male dies.

Then, the strongest female turns into a male within only a few days

and assumes the leadership of the harem.

This sex change is not unusual for coral regions

and helped a lot of species to survive years of evolution.

Nearly indefatigable,

the shoals cleave through the different features of the reef.

The monumental formations seem to watch over the sea

through the ages.

Like a part of the ocean bed,

the reef appears as a component of the Earth since its formation.

But as every animal, the coral started once very small.

The cornerstone of the huge coral reefs is one single polyp,

a small Cnidaria.

Together, with also small alga, they form a symbiotic collective.

While the polyps guarantee the alga,

called Symbiodinium, a safe place,

the alga supply the polyps with energy

using the aid of photosynthesis.

When the alga starts the photosynthesis,

a bond of carbon dioxide to sugar takes place.

The result is usable energy, which is the basis for the reefs.

But especially at night,

the corals transfer to other food supplies.

The microscopial plankton is being caught from the corals' short tentacles

and is also used by the polyps as an energy provider.

But of course the ability of the corals to get lime out of the marine water

is much more important for the build-up

of such a gigantic reef than catching plankton.

This aragonite is dropped out at the bottom of the corals

and expands the skeleton of the corals little by little.

The stonefish highly appreciates

the now-emerging possibilities to couch.

Stonefish are quite a small subspecies of the ray-finned fish.

The head is dominated by a wide and big-planed mouth.

Their skin is irregular and interspersed by various colours.

At the hillsides of the reef, those hunters brace themselves

and scan the environment for potential food.

When it comes to swimming,

they are in an inferior position to their prey animal,

and so they use their surroundings and assimilate to their environment.

As you may suggest by their name,

stonefish look a lot like rocks and boulders,

and they love to masquerade like rocks.

Due to the raw ground-levelled structures of the reef,

stonefish find quite a few possibilities to hide.

These fish can become dangerous for people as well.

Their spines are filled with a very painful poison.

But as those hunters are very poor in swimming,

accidents don't happen very often.

Other than his clumsy relatives,

this firefish is moving gracefully through the coral world.

His light, fan-shaped pectoral fins

make him look elegant and threatening at the same time.

The many stripes and rays of the firefish are not only just for beauty.

They also blur his contours

and give him some kind of camouflage battle dress.

He is one of the most dangerous hunters in the reef.

Like the stonefish, the firefish is known for its poison.

The fins evenly spread all over the firefish's body,

and they contain the poison.

It is extremely painful but, at least for people, not deadly.

However, the firefish does not use his poison for hunting.

He saves his poison just in case other predators such as the moray

might attack him.

If the firefish has to defend himself,

he points out his poisoned fins to his enemy.

In most cases, he is able to drive back his rival.

His delicate fins are not just nice to look at.

They are essential for his survival.

Not all exponents of the firefish possess the same fine fins