Do you know what a siphonophore is? It is an animal made up of a colony of organisms working together. The Portuguese man-of-war is a colony of individual organisms called polyps. It is often mistaken for a jellyfish, but truth be told, it is a highly venomous open ocean predator. It typically feeds on small marine organisms, such as fish and plankton.
Each polyp that makes up a Portuguese man-of-war is intertwined with the others, has highly specialized functions and cannot survive without the others. The largest of the polyps is known as the float; it is a bag of secreted gas which keeps the colony afloat. There are also feeding polyps, which are small digestive bags, each with its own mouth.
Tentacle polyps are the ones that look like elongated threads below the float and are studded with stinging cells. They have numerous venomous microscopic nematocysts which deliver a painful sting powerful enough to kill fish. They use the sting against predators as well. Apart from these, there are reproductive individuals as well.
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