Marine Invertebrate of the Week: Sea Cucumber Crab

Lately, Cassidy and I have been finding cool marine invertebrates near the aquarium. During the REEF survey last week, I was surprised to find a little crab sitting on top of a sea cucumber. After doing some research, I discovered this crab is called a Sea Cucumber crab for its symbiotic relationship with sea cucumbers. […]

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Marine Invertebrates of the Week: Hermit Crabs…and a Barnacle!

Hermit crabs are related to crabs but the rear half of their bodies are soft bodies that they must conceal inside an empty gastropod (marine snails and slugs) shell.  When they grow too big for their shell, they must find a bigger one.  They are especially active at night but can be found by day […]

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What are those holes on the Cauliflower coral?

Have you ever noticed those small holes, usually pink around the rims, on Cauliflower coral?  It’s actually made by a crab.  The crab (Utinomiella dimorpha), referred to as the Cauliflower Coral Crab or Kahe Point Crab, is small, only up to 1/4 of an inch.  You can see a picture of what it looks like here. […]

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I never knew so many critters lived in tide pools…

Last Friday, Beth and I ventured over to the tide pools in Ka Iwi State Park near Sandy Beach. After Beth gathered pictures of different limu species, I experimented with various camera settings to capture the cool tide pool critters. Here are my results:

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