Pom-pom crabs fight over tiny anemones, which they hold like boxing gloves

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/02/03/watch-pom-pom-crabs-fight-over-tiny-anemones-which-they-hold-like-boxing-gloves/

by mhb • 9 years ago

155 64 9 years ago

washingtonpost.com

mfrykman• 9 years ago

"The pom-pom crab, the scientists speculated, is perhaps the only animal on the planet that controls another species’ growth, feeding and asexual reproduction."

Except for scientists, of course.

moron4hire5• 9 years ago

I recall reading something about a species of ants that cultivated aphids for some fluid they secrete.

mhb• 9 years ago

Yes [1]. And leafcutter ants farm fungus. I think the distinction is the level of involvement of the crabs in the anemones' reproduction.

[1]https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071009212548.h...

taneq• 9 years ago

And botanists. There's a lot of grafting and taking cuttings going on there.

I've probably just horribly offended a bunch of botanists, haven't I?

amelius2• 9 years ago

The pom-pom crab, the scientists speculated, is perhaps the only animal on the planet that controls another species’ growth, feeding and asexual reproduction.

Speaking about controlling another species, this story [1] where a wasp performs brain-surgery on a cockroach also seems pretty interesting.

[1] https://www.wired.com/2014/02/absurd-creature-of-the-week-je...

sageikosa• 9 years ago

Extended Phenotype territory.

darkerside• 9 years ago

the only animal

Besides us, that is.

ccozan• 9 years ago

I designate myself and my other fellows as humans.

johnhenry• 9 years ago

I believe that that sentence could be written from the point of view of the anemone. The situation is unique in that the species of anemone itself may not exist outside of the "captivity" of this species of crab. I could be wrong, but all farm animals and pets are still related to some species of animal outside of human captivity. The closest analog of which I can think is the avocado plant whose seeds, as far as we know, can only be spread via human intervention.

pvaldes2• 9 years ago

the only animal on the planet that do this or that

And here comes the "sexy phrase" attack.

Ehhhm... Sorry, but not. There are lots of species that do this.

WayneBro• 9 years ago

Another interesting crustacean is the Mantis Shrimp - it's got a fast and powerful punch that reaches 73 feet per second (50 miles per hour) within 3 milliseconds - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtNAqK_V-lg

mathnode• 9 years ago

Aptly named "MANTIS MURDER SHRIMP" on some youtube videos.

stuart78• 9 years ago

Those eyes are crazy. I'm jealous of all of the animals that have a greater range of color perception than us. If I could trade for any trait, it'd be that.

JoeAltmaier2• 9 years ago

My understanding is human lens is a filter - removes ultraviolet. Early replacements didn't filter, some old folks could see colors the rest of us don't know about!

jonknee• 9 years ago

There are some substances that can put you there (at least in mindset) for some period of time. Noticing the beauty of a color you have seen thousands of times is an interesting thing.

tim333• 9 years ago

I guess you could have cameras that pick up the extra colours linked to something like a Microsoft hololens and displayed somehow like a shimmer for UV say.

pasta2• 9 years ago

Yes. They are the fear of most aquarists because they are real killers. And larger ones can even break the glass.

macintux• 9 years ago

The Oatmeal had fun with that critter.

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/mantis_shrimp

mhurron2• 9 years ago

As did the True Facts episode about the mantis shrimp

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5FEj9U-CJM

deeth_starr• 9 years ago

Saw one of these on a dive in the Maldives. The colors of it's shell are mind blowing. Glad I didn't try to pick it up.

JoeAltmaier2• 9 years ago

But... why?!

exlurker• 9 years ago

No need for questions: God works in mysterious ways.

iagooar• 9 years ago

crooked-v• 9 years ago

For evolution, the answer tends to be "why not?"

acqq• 9 years ago

And also very often: those who don't do it can't get to have successful sex.

noble11• 9 years ago

I think the article touched on this when it said the crabs use the anemones like nets to catch food and ward of larger predators.

anigbrowl4• 9 years ago

Food and/or drugs. When two animal species have an intimately codependent relationship like this it's called symbiosis, and it's a very interesting field. Some ants keep herds of aphids, a tiny insect whose secretions apparently taste like delicious caek.

sosuke• 9 years ago

Better quality and longer video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgWy0uOg54A

Boxer crabs induce asexual reproduction of their associated sea anemones by splitting and intraspecific theft https://peerj.com/articles/2954/

Dowwie• 9 years ago

This was one hell of a David vs Goliath match

pasta2• 9 years ago

Some years ago I had a reef tank. Most people start a reef tank by adding live rock. Those are rocks straight out of the sea.

It's amazing what live rock realy means. Every cm³ is covered with some form of live. Worms, crabs, starfish, anemones, you name it.

We know so little about this world. It's a shame we are busy destoying large areas of the ocean.

busted• 9 years ago

Hacker News.

Unbeliever69• 9 years ago

Am I the only one that read this as porn-porn crabs?

anigbrowl4• 9 years ago

No, but if you're like me it might be time to visit the optician again :)

jeron• 9 years ago

get your head out of the gutter

jerf• 9 years ago

Is it possible that the only remaining population of these particular anemones is in the claws of these crabs? That the only mechanism they have left for propagating is precisely the fighting and splitting seen in the tests? That would be wild. Could be checked by seeing if they're all clones. (Wouldn't necessarily be proof but it would be evidence.)

digikata• 9 years ago

Or it could have gone the other way, and the pom-pom anenomes divergently evolved under pressure the only survivors were the ones that continued to divide well under the crab provided environmental conditions.

crazydoggers• 9 years ago

I'm pretty sure they are fairly prolific outside of the crabs use.

In the reef keeping world you can actually keep Pom Pom crabs in your aquarium with their anemones. If they lose the anemone for some reason, they often will find another anemone or even some coral to use.

Here's more info on the anemone they use.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triactis

pvaldes2• 9 years ago

“but we’ve never found a free-living anemone,”

(Fifteen secons of google later...)

And here you have your free-living anemone of the same species.

http://actiniaria.com/img/triactis_producta_1.jpg

You're welcome

zem• 9 years ago

that was the most interesting bit of the article for me, so i went to see what the anemone wikipedia page said and i found

Triactis producta is found in shallow waters of the tropical Indo-Pacific Ocean, its range extending from the Red Sea and Mozambique to Hawaii and French Polynesia. It is inconspicuous, often growing in crevices and concealed among the branches of stony corals. It often occurs in dense clusters of what are probably cloned individuals.

i really wonder how that quote got into the article - was schnytzer somehow misquoted? was he talking about years ago when the anemones were seen on the crabs but not yet found in the corals? it seems unlikely that he would simply be wrong about scientists not having found out where the anemones lived in the wild.

Pom-pom crabs fight over tiny anemones, which they hold like boxing gloves

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