Pom Pom Crab

Somehow, I am a bit shocked I've never heard of this kind of crab before, and I feel like I have been let down by the world for not showing me this. 

Meet the Mosaic Pom-Pom Crab. This picture is in several places, so I'm not going to list which of the sources it came from. 

It's also known as a cheerleader crab or a boxing crab, and the reason for all three of these names is that it holds tiny sea anemones in it's claws that it uses to catch food, using the stinging poison of the anemones to shock it's prey and the tentacles of the anemone to hold it so the crab can eat it. It also uses the anemones to keep predators at bay.

 

This picture is from The Innovation Show below, which has some good information in the first half of the post before veering off into other things. I thought it very much deserved to be shared. 

I was surprised to find out that these crabs are actually available for people to put in salt water aquariums, so you might be able to get one (or a few) for yours if you have one. They're tiny, about the size of a fingernail, so you don't have to worry about them taking on your fish much. You might actually have to worry about your fish eating them, so be careful on that. Also, they're normally found in the Phillippines, so they might not be happy in your tank anyway if it's too hot/cold/salty/etc. 

For anyone worrying about it, the sea anemone does get to eat enough of the crumbs left by the crabs, so it survives. The thing that makes me cringe just a little though is that, if the crab loses one pom-pom somehow, it'll rip the remaining one in half to get two again. Both survive and grow after this, but it's still a bit mean to force asexual reproduction just so it has both hands full. 

So, this is absolutely adorable. Look closer and not so much, but still. I thought they were fun, and I hope you did too. Thanks for the time, please let me know what you think, and if you're curious, there are links below to find out more. 

Sources:

The Innovation Show

Spangler's Scuba-- Pictures of Boxing Crabs

Private Scuba-- link here to a video of the boxing crab in action

Flip Science-- Boxing Crab

Just Add Water-- 8 Facts about Pom-Pom Crabs

Seven Seas Media-- Boxer Crabs

Peer J-- A study on the crabs and anemones (This is a scientific study, complete with charts and summary and citations, if you want it. I didn't use it, but if you're interested, go for it.)