00:00It can be tough going in the ocean, everything's against you so whenever you can make a friend
00:08it's always to your benefit and in this case this tiny little crab has made two friends.
00:14This is a boxer crab, he's a crab the same as any other, he's got that shell, he's got
00:19those two claws but you will notice that in each claw he's wearing a little boxing glove
00:24that just so happens to be an anemone.
00:28Although they look like plants, anemones are in fact animals and can usually be found
00:34attached to rocks.
00:36So why exactly does the boxer crab hold a pair in his claws?
00:41Well anemones can sting so he uses them to catch food from the water column and the boxer
00:49crab will stand in a suitable position and wave those claws around sweeping the water
00:54for tasty little treats.
00:57In fact he's doing it now, he's getting his little wave on, doing his little macarena
01:04cracking stuff.
01:08This feeding behaviour isn't quite hunting, think of it more as beefed up scavenging and
01:14they're not fussy, these crabs will eat anything they can get their grubby sticky mitts on
01:19From detritus in the water to plankton and tiny shrimp.
01:24But if then someone wants to have a go at the boxer crab, maybe thinks that the boxer
01:28crab is going to be lunch, that's when the sting of the anemone can be used in defence
01:33and a boxer crab will push its anemones into the face of any potential attacker.
01:40Anemones tentacles are covered in stinging cells called nematocysts.
01:46Triggered by even the slightest touch, these cells inject a paralysing toxin into the unfortunate
01:52victim.
01:53Nasty!
01:54But how come the crab doesn't get stung by its anemone pals?
01:59Well simply put his hard shell protects him from any friendly fire and the anemone's reward
02:05for helping out is greater access to food as the crab is always on the move.
02:12Now that's what I call teamwork!
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