Hi Aquatic Sentinels!🐬

Once again, I bring you content that I consider to be of quality, this takes several hours of reading, comprehension and writing.💡📚

But more than that, this is one more publication so that together we can appreciate and contemplate how wonderful our ocean is!

🦈🦀🐢🐳🐙 I hope you enjoy it!🐟🦈🦀🐢🐳

Photos by Tim Cameron📸 See photo here👈
📍Ambon

We once talked about symbiotic relationships in marine species 👉(@juanbg/biological-interactions-in-the-sea-a-didactic-guide), these relationships are made from the smallest invertebrates such as crabs to the giants of the ocean such as whales, existing various types of symbiont relationships, where even these relationships are so close that their life depends on it.

Photo by sea-kangaroo📸 See photo here👈
📍Ka'anapali, Maui, Hawai'i, USA

In a simple way, symbiosis can be defined as a relationship between organisms in which at least one of the species involved will benefit.✔️ "Some types of biological interactions can be favorable, others can be unfavorable, and there are even interactions that are neutral for the organisms involved. Thus, very different interactions occur, from that of one species feeding on another (predation) to that of species that are mutually beneficial" we mentioned this in the article cited above👆

👉Join us until the end of this post to find out all the details👈...

_{The following information is taken from: Hazel María Canizales Flores. (2021). "LOS CANGREJOS TRAPEZIA Y SU RELACIÓN COMPLICADA PERO EXITOSA, CON LOS CORALES POCILLOPORA". Laboratorio de Ecología Marina, Centro Universitario de la Costa, Universidad de Guadalajara; Peter K. L. Ng; Danièle Guinot & Peter J. F. Davie (2008). "Systema Brachyurorum: Part I. An annotated checklist of extant Brachyuran crabs of the world" (PDF). Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. 17: 1–286. Adapted by @juanbg}

Crabs and corals?

Symbiotic interactions can play a critical role in the health and survival of reef-building corals, so any advances that help to better understand these interactions that we mention are very important.

Photo by Edgardo L.C.📸 See photo here👈
📍Isla Gorgona, Guapí, Cauca, Colombia

Researcher 👩‍⚕Hazel María Canizales shares with us an example of a symbiotic interaction: shrimp and crabs associated with corals. These crustaceans can exhibit behaviors that greatly benefit the corals that host them...

Crabs of the genus Trapezia🦀

There are more than 20 species that are part of the genus Trapezia, all of them are considered as guardian crabs or rather as coral crabs due to the relationship we are talking about, they are considered guardians because they protect corals from predators such as starfish.

Photo by D. Torres-Pulliza📸 See photo here👈
📍Honolulu County, US

A curious fact is that they have been observed aggressive behavior between individuals of the same species, Michael Huber👨‍⚕ in 1987 observed two species of this genus (Trapezia intermedia and Trapezia digitalis) fighting on many occasions, however these fights only took place with individuals of the same sex and never in different sexes.

A "complicated" but effective relationship

This symbiotic relationship is so strong that some studies indicate that the life of Trapezia crabs depends on finding a home in Pocillopora corals, as this is their main food source for the crab, so it is expected that the relationship between a crab and a coral be "forever"😅.

In the Marine Ecology Laboratory of the University Center of the Coast of the University of Guadalajara in Mexico🔬, a project was carried out to study Pocillopora coral colonies, in this project they realized that this relationship is not as "faithful" as it seems, since the crabs can move from colonies frequently, at which point the coral is no longer protected.

Photo by Isla Elliott-Walker📸 See photo here👈
📍Pulau Pom Pom, Sabah, Malaysia

Knowing this type of information will always give us a better idea of ​​how we can study and take care of our species🦀, the next time you swim near corals, do not forget to look among their branches where you will be able to observe these small but brave guardians😃

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