After research, biologists discovered that fiddler crabs use their small pincers to scrape small particles from the surface of the mud and put them into their mouths. After scientific testing, those small particles were found to contain many nutrient-rich debris, algae, bacteria and other microorganisms. The nutrients are so abundant that they can meet the nutritional needs of many organisms.
Of course, no matter how nutritious the soil is, it will be useless if you can't absorb it.
Most creatures that swallow mud cannot absorb any nutrients from the mud, but fiddler crabs can get full just by eating mud. This is definitely a miracle in the history of biology.
Xiang Yang picked up the fiddler crab, held it in front of his eyes and looked at it carefully. He found that this fiddler crab not only had special claws and eyes, but also had a very special mouth. It did not look like a crab's mouth, but was a bit similar to the mouth of a Boston lobster.
In fact, the structure inside the fiddler crab's mouth is even more special.
In the mouth of the fiddler crab, there is a very special organ that can sort and filter the food it eats. The nutrient-rich parts are eaten into the stomach, and the useless residues are taken out by small pincers and discarded on the ground. That is why many small soil balls can often be seen where fiddler crabs appear.
Many people mistakenly believe that those small soil balls are the feces excreted by fiddler crabs. In fact, the real name of these small soil balls is "pseudo-feces", which are truly barren soil bags without any fertilizer.
Xiang Yang stared at the fiddler crab carefully, then smiled and threw it into the net bag.
Although this fiddler crab is small, only a little over one or two pounds in size, its size is not suitable for being a meat crab.
But this fiddler crab has rich colors and eye-catching tide-calling movements. If it were placed in a marine tank, it would be very ornamental. It has very high ornamental value.
Of course, only male fiddler crabs swing their large claws in all sorts of showy displays; female fiddler crabs have very small claws.
Of course, the male fiddler crabs wave their claws and perform various ostentatious displays not to summon the tide, but to attract the opposite sex similar to a peacock spreading its feathers.
Of course.
The large claws that account for more than half of the total body volume are not just for good looks, they also have the function of repelling powerful enemies and defending territory.
If you encounter a really powerful enemy that you cannot defeat, the fiddler crab will have the opportunity to escape. When the predator sees the claws that are larger than the fiddler crab's shell, he will of course choose the large claws, and the fiddler crab can take the opportunity to escape.
Fiddler crabs have a strong regenerative ability. When their claws fall off, they can quickly grow a new one.
After putting the fiddler crab into the net bag, Xiang Yang continued to search for other valuable seafood on the seabed.
Although fiddler crabs have great ornamental value, Xiang Yang has no intention of searching for fiddler crabs.
Fiddler crabs like to live in burrows. Although they can dive to the bottom of the sea, they actually need oxygen to breathe. Xiang Yang was very surprised to find a fiddler crab on the seabed. Generally, fiddler crabs like to live on the coast.
When the tide rises, fiddler crabs will even cleverly block their own doors with a ball of mud.
If it were on the shore, Xiang Yang might not be able to catch this fiddler crab.
Although the fiddler crab has short legs and does not swim fast, it can run very fast. Although it mainly walks sideways, it is a famous sprinter. When it sprints, it is just like a small off-road vehicle with eight wheels. However, the fiddler crab's sprint can only last for a few seconds.
Xiang Yang nimbly crossed a coral reef and was about to continue swimming forward.
Suddenly, Xiang Yang's eyes narrowed and he stared in confusion at a group of black and white fish swimming in the coral reefs in front of him.
I saw that the fish had bodies as light as flying swallows, with black and white colors blending perfectly together. The slender fins made the fish have an otherworldly air.
It turned out to be Pearl Flying Swallow. Xiang Yang was a little confused, how could Pearl Flying Swallow appear in the South China Sea.
When it comes to pearl swallowtail, perhaps not many people know what kind of fish it is.
But if you mention another name of Pearl Swallow, most people will know it.
Another name for Pearl Swallow is the Surabaya Rose, which is known as the eternal black and white classic.
The pearl swallowtail is a small tropical marine fish. Even when it grows to adulthood, it is only about seven centimeters. It generally feeds on plankton and is the most traded marine fish in the aquarium trade market.
The Pearl Swallow not only has a nice name, but also a beautiful appearance. When swimming in the sea, it looks like a flying swallow. It also likes to live in groups. It is one of the few marine ornamental fish that can swim in groups in an aquarium.
Because of the Pearl Swallowtail's beautiful appearance and its gregarious nature, it has become a popular marine ornamental fish all over the world, and is deeply loved by aquarium enthusiasts around the world, which has led to a large-scale aquarium trade.
Since the first appearance of the Pearl Swallowtail in the international aquarium trade in 1995, just five years later, in 2000, nearly 700,000 Surabaya Rosefish were exported from Indonesia to other countries. Since 2001, nearly 900,000 Pearl Swallowtails have been caught from Indonesian waters every year.
Overfishing caused by the large-scale aquarium trade has led to the near extinction of the Pearly Swallow.
Hell Island, once the largest habitat for pearl swifts, now has no pearl swifts to be found.
In just twenty years since its discovery, this beautiful fish, the wild Sishui Rose, is almost on the verge of extinction and has been listed on the IU Red List as a critically endangered species.
Xiang Yang flashed and appeared among the group of pearl swallows.
"The origin of the Pearl Swallow is very narrow. These Pearl Swallows are probably not native to this sea area. They may have been released by tourists passing by." Xiang Yang thought to himself.
The Xisha Islands are one of the most popular sea areas for Chinese tourists who go on yacht trips, so it is not surprising that Xiang Yang would come here.
It is not surprising that someone would release the Pearl Swallow. Tourists who can come here by yacht must have considerable financial strength.
It’s just that these people are not actually doing good things. Species invasion is actually a very serious matter.
In Songshan Lake, many tourists release scavengers and turtles into the lake. These two creatures are simply mobile fish egg cleaning machines and have extremely strong reproductive capacity. They have brought devastating disasters to the fish originally living in Songshan Lake. In order to clean out the turtles and scavengers released by tourists from the lake, the lake area managers spent millions of dollars in 2019.
Someone once released an alligator snapping turtle into the Chengxi Reservoir in Longcheng, causing a sensation in the whole city.