Over the course of twenty four weeks, our Dive Deeper course jumps into the world of marine biology and explores different animals and habitats all around our oceans. Following on from our Ocean Explorers course, Dive Deeper offers a deep dive into the underwater world as we learn about the life under the waves. Every class is all-encompassing, so you can dip in and out for a week at a time or stay with us for the full cycle and become a fully-fledged Ocean Explorer: Deep Diver! Let’s dive in and check out our topics. This time – crustaceans.
Cool Crustaceans
There are over 45,000 species of crustaceans found around the world, floating around in open water, hiding in coral reefs or down in the deepest depths of our oceans. Crustaceans are a type of arthropod, which are invertebrates. Instead of having a backbone they have a hard exoskeleton on the outside of their body. They range from smaller than a millimetre to over 3 metres! Today we are going to discuss some species whose looks or behaviour crown them the coolest crustacean in the sea.
Pistol Shrimp
Pistol shrimp are easy to spot due to their asymmetrical claws, typically one claw is much larger than the other. Although these small shrimps are only between 3-5cm long they have a secret weapon that helps them take down prey. When they snap their large claw closed is produces a bubble, this bubble ejects from the claw and can reach up to 56 mph! The pressure is enough to kill small fish, hence the name pistol shrimp.
Cleaner shrimp
Just like cleaner fish we often find cleaner shrimp hanging out around cleaning stations on coral reefs. The small shrimp remove parasites from fish, this can even include going inside their gills and mouth. These small crustaceans have even been recorded to remove mucus and parasites from around wounds to prevent them from getting infected. This relationship is what we call “mutual symbiosis” as both the fish and shrimp benefit, the shrimp gets a meal, and the fish gets nice and clean.
Orangutan crab
Found in the tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific, these tiny crabs get their name due to their long arms and red fur. These tiny hairs often catch things that are floating in the water; however, this helps the crab as it can eat the plankton that gets caught, and other marine debris can help with their camouflage. If you ever want to spot an orangutan crab the best place to look is inside bubble corals, where they are often found hiding.
Yeti crabs
Another fluffy species of crab are yeti crabs; however, these are not found on shallow coral reefs, they inhabit one of the most extreme habitats in the ocean. Yeti crabs are found around hydrothermal vents, fissures in the seabed where water emerges from 60 °C up to as high as 464 °C. Although this sounds like an inhabitable environment, yeti crabs call it their home. They use the hairs on their body to catch the toxins coming out of the vents, this allows them to harvest bacteria which they then eat.
Whale lice
Moving on to a parasitic crustaceans next: whale lice are found on the outside of skin, nostrils and eyes of whales, dolphins, and porpoises. We often find the lice along with another crustacean, barnacles. These give the lice somewhere to hold onto, so they don’t get washed away. To get rid of the lice the cetaceans can be seen rubbing themselves on the sea bottom or breaching.
‘Crustaceans’ is just one of the 24 topics we have in our Dive Deeper course. In the class, we’ll learn all about what crustaceans are and explore the different species in our oceans!
Ready to start your ocean exploring journey? To sign up and become an Ocean Explorer today click here. While you wait for your first class, why not follow us on Facebook, where we regularly share fun facts, craft ideas and cute videos. You might also like to sign up to our monthly WiseKids newsletter for a monthly dose of marvellous marine-themed content straight to your inbox!
