What Sea Creatures Plant Their Own Gardens?

The spider crab not only plants its own seaweed garden, but it plants the garden right on its own body! This crab snatches pieces of seaweed, cuts them into smaller pieces, and attaches the cuttings to the hairs on its legs and shell.

The seaweed cuttings take root on the crab, and eventually grow to completely cover it. By the time the spider crab is finished with its garden, it looks just like a mass of seaweed, and is perfectly hidden from its enemies.

Another kind of crab, the coral-gall crab, collects small sea creatures called corals and places them all around its body. As a coral grows, it surrounds itself with a shell, and when it dies, the shell remains.

So the coral-gall crab soon finds itself surrounded by a coral shell, with small holes in the shell where the corals once lived. These holes permit water and food particles to reach the imprisoned crab.

So while the coral shell protects the crab from its enemies, the crab can never escape from its shell. It spends the rest of its life locked inside the coral, and may even give birth to young crabs inside the shell!