Symbiotic Relationships

Many creatures often interact with each other and develop a symbiotic relationship where one species helps the other out.

Most common are the clown fish and anemone. The anemone's tentacles protect clown fish from predators and it also provide food scraps for the fish. The clown fish removes harmful parasites from the anemone, fertilize the anemone with its waste and help circulate water around the anemone.

Other relationships include cleaner wrasse "cleaning" stuff from other fish

as well as the a remora to a turtle. Both instances are about the fish cleaning the other species for food.

One relationship that delighted me involved a goby and two shrimps.

In the video below, the shrimps looked like they were cleaning house while the goby stood as the "watchman." There is more to it than meets the eye. What is actually happening is the shrimps are digging a burrow and are providing shelter for the goby. The goby acts as a lookout, warning the shrimp of potential predators.

Throughout the video, you can see the goby re-positioning itself and preparing to warn the shrimps if something is amiss. It guessed that I wasn't harmful with my GoPro 🐟 📷 🦐

Here are more pictures of sea creatures that are often in pairs and help each other out live the life in the ocean.

We can all learn from these critters, don't you think?