The cities of coral, just of the shore of the Island, Bank Troy, are a wonderful world underneath the ocean. It holds over 650 species of aquatic creatures and plants and many different oceanic regions. Some of these regions include the coral reefs themselves, the sand flats and the grass beds. Each of the Aquatic plants and animals in these regions are affected mostly by the following abiotic factors: The amount of sunlight, the climate, the depth (amount of light and pressure) and the surroundings or regions themselves. The sunlight contributes to the growth of plants and phytoplankton and the more Phytoplankton the more zooplankton (due to the fact that they feed on phytoplankton) there is and the more zooplankton the more food there is for fish and so on. The climate affects the temperature of the water which, in turn, affects what kind of animals and plants are accustomed to living in that climate. The depth determines the amount of sunlight there is and the pressure which is also a factor that determines what fish can live in that kind of habitat. The surrounding and regions of the area determine the habitat because certain fish have different survival methods and adaptations and these depend on the surroundings. For example, in the Coral reefs certain fish can hide in the crevices, in the sand flats certain fish can dig into and hide in the sand etc.

One region of the Coral reefs is the reef itself. The reef is home to predators like the moray eel, which hides in crevices waiting to swallow up passing fish, the yellow tail snapper who looks harmless but feeds grabs and swallows small fish with lightning speed. There are also predators like the Barracuda which are fairly large and have very sharp teeth have a hunting style of ambush where they hide and lye in ambush and with relying on sudden bursts of speed can catch passing fish unaware. Except for predators there is also the prey which has adapted to this habitat. Some examples of adaptations of the prey are the Butterfly fish which has fake big black spots which look like eyes that can throw off or confuse the predators. Some fish like herrings survive by swimming in large schools (where the fish all move in the same direction) thus making it hard for the predator to pick out a target. There are also other fish like yellow angelfish that risk themselves and work with some of the predators by eating parasites of their backs. There are also the mantis shrimp that are able to escape predators by digging themselves into the sand. Another region in the coral reefs is the sand flats. This is an area consisting mostly of sand and it is hard to find shelter and food among this area. Some predators that live here are the littered fish, Sand scorpion fish, flounders, and goatfish. The littered fish and scorpion fish prey by concealing themselves and waiting for a fish to come. The flounder preys by adjusting color to everything he hovers by thus making him invisible to the prey. The goatfish feeds by digging up sand and finding crabs and insects there. Some prey that lives in the sand flats are the puffer fish, porcupine fish, and cowfish. Puffer fish and porcupine fish are similar except that porcupine fish have a spine and puffer fish do not. They both have a defense mechanism of blowing themselves up and putting up spikes when a predator is trying to eat them. They have very few predators that can eat them, only some sharks dolphins and tuna. The cowfish is a fish which protects itself by producing poison.

A coral reef is a neither a plant or animal because it has both plant cells and animal cells. The coral reef itself a start its life as a spinning circle, It then attaches itself and becomes is solid skeletal structure. It reproduces itself by hundreds. Coral reefs often attack each other if one gets to close to the other. This is a slow process lasting 24 hours when one coral stings the other wit whit tentacles. A few types of coral are Brain coral and Elkhorn coral.

Times of day greatly affect the roles of herbivores and carnivores. Carnivores (predators) can hunt mostly both night and day but it is more productive hunting at day because Herbivores are active at day due to the fact that planktons are active in the sunlight and fish eat them. Carnivores (scavengers) can feed any time of day because it does not affect the number of dead meat.

The coral system is a wonderful world with many species and what seems to be just beautiful tropical coral is a complex environment with hundreds of predators and prey interacting.