--- title: The aquarium: the coral reef tank — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «The aquarium: the coral reef tank», a lesson of the biology course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Stand in front of the reef tank and it looks like a busy town under water: clownfish tucked into waving anemones, a blue tang like Dory --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/90-aquarium-the-coral-reef-tank/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/) / The aquarium: the coral reef tank # The aquarium: the coral reef tank Lesson 90 of the biology course of Mova's primary school: 15 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/biology/90-aquarium-the-coral-reef-tank/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/90-aquarium-the-coral-reef-tank/0/) — Stand in front of the reef tank and it looks like a busy town under water: clownfish tucked into waving anemones, a blue tang like Dory gliding past, a cleaner wrasse swimming into a big fish's mouth and coming out safe. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/90-aquarium-the-coral-reef-tank/1/) — The coral that looks like rocks and plants is really made of tiny animals, related to jellyfish, that build stone skeletons and share their home with tiny algae that make food from sunlight. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/90-aquarium-the-coral-reef-tank/2/) — Finding Nemo got some things right and some wrong: clownfish do live safely in stinging anemones, but in a real clownfish family, when the mother dies, the father turns into a female, and fish like Dory are not forgetful at all. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/90-aquarium-the-coral-reef-tank/3/) — Even the goldfish's «three-second memory» is a myth; scientists have trained goldfish to remember a sound or a lever for months. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/90-aquarium-the-coral-reef-tank/4/) — Coral reefs cover less than 1 per cent of the ocean floor but are home to about a quarter of all sea fish species. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/90-aquarium-the-coral-reef-tank/5/) — Clownfish live among stinging anemone tentacles without being stung, thanks to a special slime; the fish gets safety and the anemone gets scraps and cleaning. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/90-aquarium-the-coral-reef-tank/6/) — All clownfish are born male, and when the female of a group dies, the biggest male turns into a female. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/90-aquarium-the-coral-reef-tank/7/) — The blue tang has a sharp spine near its tail that it uses like a scalpel for defence. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/90-aquarium-the-coral-reef-tank/8/) — Goldfish can be trained to push levers or come to a sound and remember it for months; the «three-second memory» is a myth. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/90-aquarium-the-coral-reef-tank/9/) — Corals are tiny animals called polyps that build limestone skeletons; algae living inside them make food from sunlight and share it. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/90-aquarium-the-coral-reef-tank/12/) — Pufferfish swallow water fast to blow up into a prickly ball, and many also have strong poison. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/90-aquarium-the-coral-reef-tank/13/) — The stonefish is one of the most venomous fish; it lies still looking like a lumpy rock, has venomous spines on its back that can sting a person who treads on it, and swallows passing fish in a split second. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/90-aquarium-the-coral-reef-tank/14/) — Seahorses are fish that swim upright and grip seaweed with curly tails; the male carries the eggs in a pouch until the babies hatch. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/90-aquarium-the-coral-reef-tank/15/) — Sea tanks are made with special salt mixed into clean water and tested every day, and big filters clean the water like kidneys. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/90-aquarium-the-coral-reef-tank/16/) — Moray eels open and close their mouths to pump water over their gills, not to threaten, and they have a second pair of jaws in their throat that pull food in. - ← previous: [The amphibian room: poison frogs, axolotls and the frog rescue](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/89-amphibian-room-poison-frogs-axolotls-frog-rescue/) - next →: [The aquarium: the shark tunnel and the rays](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/91-the-aquarium-the-shark-tunnel-and-the-rays/) - ↑ back to [Biology](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/)