Dressy crabs

 At least these are identifiable as crabs. But anything beyond that is a wild guess.

Decorator crab. I think. Maybe.

Crab with pink hat.

This guy's "hat" is probably a pale sponge. And he's wearing some spiky algae. The apparent eyes, those round spots just under the sponge, are not eyes; the eyes are on stalks close to the rostrum, that pointed structure making a roof over his mouthparts.

And what on earth is this?

All eyes.

It is very tiny. I saw only the eyes; the camera picked up other details, the rostrum and some white stuff behind. Part of the eye guy, or something else? I can't tell.

I'm going to make a pest of myself in the aquarium with my questions.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Por lo menos, puedo reconocer que estos son cangrejos. Pero más de eso, tengo puras conjeturas.

Foto #1: un cangrejo decorador. Creo. Tal vez.

#2: Cangrejo con gorro. La sustancia color de rosa pálida creo que es una esponja. Además lleva un poco de alga. Lo que parece ojos, las manchas redondas, no lo son. Los ojos se sostienen sobre pedúnculos, y están justo al lado del rostro, que es ese techito puntiagudo que da sombra a las partes de la boca.

#3: ¿Y esto, qué es? Muy pequeñito. Yo no más vi los ojos y la cámara registró los otros detalles, el rostro y algo blanco atrás, que puede ser parte del ojudo, o otra criatura. No lo puedo distinguir.

Tendré que hacerme una plaga en el acuario, haciendo preguntas.

Elusive anemone

For about 7 years, an old abalone shell, purchased in a garage sale years before, has been a fixture in my saltwater aquarium. At first, it was a place for hermit crabs to stand tall and watch the world go by. Later, crabs found the inner surface to be a good hiding place. Now, the plumose anemone calls it home.

Over the years, it has lost its pearly sheen; it is gradually dissolving, and one side has a great hole, crumbling at the edges. The outer part of the shell is riddled with pores, each one housing a tiny, two-tentacled worm. Limpets browse among them, hermits pick their way across, on their way to the eelgrass bed and climbing ground.

One of the worms, a Siponid. The tentacles are, at most, 5 mm. long.

A couple of years ago, I noticed several miniature anemone-like critters, extremely small, almost invisible unless the light was just right, on the shell. They have a circle of a few tentacles, a dozen to twenty-something, with alternating clear and white patches. The column is never clearly visible.

I've watched them, always under bright light, with a lens; with the naked eye they're barely there. Tonight, with all the lights on and a bright flashlight, I spent 15 minutes examining their favourite spots before I found one.

They seem to move about; I see four or five in one spot, and watch them for a few days, and then can't find them. Later, they show up in another area, but always on the abalone shell. I've never seen one anywhere else. I've looked.

And I've tried, over and over, to get a photo; they're even more elusive under a flash. But the other day, with the abalone shell a mere inch from the glass, a couple showed up clearly.

Mini-anemones, with two-tentacled worm in background. Approximate size, maybe 1 cm. across, tentacle tip to tip. They never get any bigger than this. Contrast increased slightly.

I can't find these in my Encyclopedia, nor in any website; they're too small to be noticed, maybe. They should be easy to identify (more or less) by the size, the limited number of tentacles, and the white spots, so I've browsed hundreds of photos, but without seeing any.

(I found a similar one, here, towards the bottom of the page, also unidentified.)

Gift wrapped

I found this on my doorstep a few mornings ago*:

Hairy cocoon.

I don't know what made this. It's 2 cm. long, sort of egg-shaped, and soft to the touch. The spiky hairs sticking straight through the covering look as if they belong to a woolly bear caterpillar. The whole thing was fastened to the rag rug underneath, glued or interwoven.

I have it in a container with a perforated lid, and I'm keeping a watch on it to see what emerges.

*A favourite cat used to leave me a line-up of mouse tails. I prefer this sort of "gift".

(Note: I'm still here, just extremely busy. And tired. Blogging will be catch-as-catch-can for the rest of this week.)

Yay!

I think I've got my computer whipped back into shape. Now I can get back to the good stuff. Like this tiny critter:

Unidentified, as yet. Something to look up on BugGuide. Very small. How small, I've forgotten. They'll know. 

And speaking of critters, here's an interesting article, with video, about how male spiders tie down their mates to avoid becoming supper.

Look what I found!

This showed up on the wall of the aquarium a couple of days ago.

Unidentified medusa, about 3 mm. across bell.

More photos and the complete story, tomorrow.