Crawdads are a close relative of the lobster. In fact, crawdad are more closely related to the Maine lobster than other types of lobster in the oceans. They are so close in taste that there was a recent incident in which a New York restaurant was using crawdads in place of lobster in their lobster salad – and no one noticed. There are more than 500 species of crawdad found throughout the world, and more than 350 of those live in the United States. Of these, only two species are actually harvested and eaten. Crawdad live on every continent in the world except for Antarctica.
The short-nosed unicornfish is mainly active in daytime, unicorn fish roam in groups feeding on algae. They are closely related to tangs and surgeonfish and can grow to around 51-61 cm (20-24 in). The horn-like appendage between their eyes begins growing when a young fish reaches about 13 cm (5 in) in length, and tends to be a little bigger on males. They are generally not aggressive to each other, but when they do fight they use sharp scalpels by their tails as weapons, not their horns. Their skin is smooth and less susceptible to skin diseases compared to tangs.
Four years ago a Japanese penguin in Tobu Zoo fell in love with an anime cutout. That penguin's name was Grape-kun and was previously suffering from depression and barely eating after his wife left him for a younger penguin while he was ill and quarantined. In 2017 Grape-kun started to court with hululu, a cutout put into the enclosure as part of collaboration promotion for an anime. This garnered alot of attention in Japan as Grape-kun's overall mood increased and he started to eat again without a handlers help. Sadly, Grape-kun passed away on October 12th, 2017 but he didn't die alone, Hululu was by his side until the end and reportedly died peacefully. In honor of the best year Grape-kun had lived in a long time, a new cutout of hululu and him now sit in the enclosure.
Soft-shell crabs are what we get after stone crabs go through their molting stage and shed their hard shells. The process typically takes two to three hours. It's extremely difficult to determine how old a stone crab is. So, its age is determined by how many times it has molted. It's estimated that, in wild and unharvested populations, males live between 7 and 8 years while females live between 8 and 9 years. Stone crabs are generally right-handed – The right hand is often bigger than the left and stronger. The animal has powerful claws either way. The limb is capable of crushing 19,000 pounds per square inch.
A fish so loud in its spawning that residents in San Francisco Bay were kept awake by what they thought was the humming of an electricity line. The noise appeared once a year and was so loud they planned to sue the electricity company. In fact, it was made by the male toadfish vibrating a muscle on his swimbladder to attract the female with a noise similar to a foghorn. The female swims towards the male and when he grabs her in his jaws they retreat to a suitable crevice to spawn in private. Residents of the bay now celebrate this event with an annual festival.
How long does it take for a body to decompose at sea? What the hell happens to it? It's all about the temperature. Bodies tend to sink in colder water, and the skin absorbs water and peels away from the corpse within a week, slowly being eaten away by marine life. Bodies can stay recognizable for months. In tropical water, it’s a different story. Even a weighted body will normally float to the surface after three or four days, exposing it to sea birds and buffeting from the waves. Putrefaction and scavenging creatures will dismember the corpse in a week or two and the bones will sink to the seabed.
Mantis shrimp (which are actually crabs, not even shrimp) are the Mike Tysons of the ocean world. Equipped with the best visual system and strongest pound for pound punch of ANY creature, they are so troublesome that most aquariums do not hold them, as they would shatter their glass box. Its punch is so strong it creates light and heat as well as a cavitation bubble (a bubble that is made when an impact rips water apart, creating a shockwave). The punch is equivalent to a .22 bullet's velocity upon leaving the barrel. Mantis shrimp have more rods and cones in their eyes and can see more colors than we can. Imagine 13 colors you can't see, plus the ones you already can. That's what a Mantis Shrimp can see.
Think humans have weird childbirth? Imagine if your dad gargled you and all 99 of your baby siblings for 2 weeks. Well that's exactly what the Yellowhead Jawfish father does, keeping more than 100 fertilized eggs carefully placed in his mouth. The fish occasionally opens wide, spits the eggs out, and collects them again, rotating them in the process to ensure even oxygenation. Mouth-brooding lasts between one and two weeks. During that time, he does not eat any food, devoting all of his energy to caring for its spawn.
A rare two-headed turtle with six legs was born two weeks ago and taken to the Cape Wildlife Center. Nicknamed Mary-kate and Ashley, the conjoined duo have managed to stay very active with no underlining medical issues despite having a case that most animals don't survive long with. They've even learned to cooperate together to use their share of three legs to swim up to the surface faster!
The form of barnacle most commonly encountered by land-lubbing humans is the gray, volcano-shaped, stony type that can be found attached to piers, buoys and boat hulls around the world, but this is only one form that barnacles can take. They have a wide range of body plans, but one of the most bizarre is the rhizocephalan barnacle, which is an internal parasite in other crustaceans. They infiltrate and spread within the body of their host and even alter its behavior and appearance. Infected crabs can be detected by the external reproductive structure of the rhizocephalan that grows where the crab's own eggs would be. The crab cleans and cares for this growth as if it were its own.