Although not actually “true crabs” (they’re crustaceans, but from the family Porcellanidae) porcelain crabs resemble “real” crabs to a degree that most people can’t actually tell the difference. Porcelain crabs have flat, round bodies–much like those of real crabs–which evolved over time to fit easily into crevices and under rocks–the creature’s preferred living quarters in the wild. You can find them living in almost every ocean (except the Arctic and Antarctic Oceans), but look carefully–the average porcelain crab has a body less than an inch in diameter. Some 277 species of porcelain crabs have been recorded, and fossils suggest the porcelain crab has been around since at
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Photobombing Crabs of the Reef
I take a lot of aquarium photographs, both for myself and to share on the blog and social media. When I can, I take the time to frame the shots to minimize the need for edits–and when I can’t, I often crop the photographs for best effect. When you spend enough time photographing a subject, you notice certain patterns–some the result of photographer’s bias (for example, my tendency to photograph Magellan more than the other seahorses on the reef) and some that emerge from the subject itself. Three porcelain crabs (the pictured one is my oldest female, Ripley): Crabs, and hermits particularly, fill an important role
Read moreThe Reef in Review, April 2013
Last month I started a new feature: – the Month in Review, Reef Edition. And so, with no further ado, let’s take a look at what happened in April, 2013: The best shot of the month goes to Cyg & Ceti: a mid-water clip from their mating dance: Elsewhere on the reef last month: Lots of algae meant a need for additions to the clean-up crew. This time, that meant large turbo snails and also nassarius snails, which spend most of their time burrowed in the sand and emerge at feeding time to clean up the aquarium floor. (They’re fully
Read moreMy Son Told Me Not to Post This*
…but I’m doing it anyway. Yesterday morning I checked in on my aquarium before work (I always do, to see the fish and make sure everything is running smoothly before I head out for the day) and saw this: For the most part, that looks like a photo of my aquarium without the lights on. The purple sea fan (the branching tree-like structure in the middle of the frame) is at rest, so its polyps are retracted, leaving the branches “bare.” The oddity is the object hanging from the central branch to the upper right side of the sea fan.
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