They are the largest animals on earth to move by cilia. Ctenophores are also highly bioluminescent, meaning they can produce and emit their own light. These crustaceans are carnivorous, and often live attached to jelly plankton. Other gelatinous zooplankton, sea turtles, and large fish called mola molas, are a few examples of creatures that capture and eat medusae. We just have to look at the medusae to know that not all plankton are small.
Light is one of the factors that controls where organisms are found in the ocean.
In this virtual net tow, we explore some of the creatures you might find in the deep sea. As the sun sets over the Sargasso Sea, these shrimp and millions of other sea creatures migrate up from the depths to feast on microscopic plants growing in sunlit surface waters. At dawn, these animals reverse course, sinking or swimming down to spend another day in the darkness. By almost any measure, this daily migration rivals the great seasonal movements of caribou on land or arctic terns in the air. The deep red color of this jellyfish is common amongst many deep sea zooplankton.