V. contei, like all bryozoans, is a suspension feeder. Each individual zooid in a colony has 12 ciliated tentacles that are extended to filter phytoplankton less than 0.045 mm in size (about 1/1800 of an inch) from the water column. Bullivant (1967; 1968) showed that the average individual zooid in a colony can clear 8.8 ml of water per day.Habitats: Typical habitat for ectoprocts in the Indian River Lagoon include seagrasses, drift algae, oyster reef, dock, pilings, breakwaters, and man-made debris (Winston 1995). V. contei is highly cryptic in its habitat and occurs principally in the roots of hydroids such as Thyroscyphus and Endendrium. It also is found growing on sponges, rocks, breakwaters, and attached to Sargassum.