When I picked it up, I saw that the conch had actually died long ago and the snail meat had been eaten. Now that the one who occupied its snail shell was a strange marine creature that looked a bit like the last monster in the finale of Ultraman Tiga.

"Hermit crab." Li Xuan handed the snail shell to Tang Yuting and said.

Tang Yuting didn't dare to pick it up with her hands. She opened the hole in the net bag and said, "Put it inside."

Li Xuan nodded, put the screw shell at the entrance of the net bag, then stretched out two fingers and tapped it hard, and the hermit crab fell out of the conch.

Seeing this, Tang Yuting said sympathetically: "Its house is gone."

When Li Xuan heard this, he burst into laughter and said, "Girl, why is your brain circuit always different from ordinary people? Everyone says that hermit crab is a kind of crab that likes to rob. You say that this snail shell is its house."

As he said that, Li Xuan threw the snail shell into the ocean. "Generally, hermit crabs can be used as parasitic snail shells, and they are all well-preserved snail shells. When the hermit crab shrinks into the snail shell, it is a snail shell. There will also be sea anemones on the snail shell as a means of defense, or they will use snail worms as camouflage embellishments. This thing is dangerous. If you see it in the future, it is best not to grab it directly with your hands."

When Tang Yuting heard this, she was shocked, "Aren't sea anemone poisonous? Brother Xuanzi, then you were poisoned, right?"

Li Xuan laughed silently and said politely: "I am an expert in this field. If I can still be injured by hermit crabs, I won't have to go out to sea to catch fish in the future."

Tang Yuting nodded slightly, then said, "Brother Xuanzi, let's look for it nearby again, maybe there will be hermit crabs."

Li Xuan nodded. Hermit crabs are a kind of world-wide crabs, with many on the beaches everywhere, especially between tides, which are very dense.

Of course, hermit crabs are different from each place.

Hermit crabs actually talk about more than just a type of crab. They are divided into many species and are a general term for various organisms in the family Hermit crab family.

All hermit crabs have one common specialty, that is, they like to live in the shell species of dead molluscs to protect their soft abdomen, so they are named hermit crabs.

Li Xuan was looking for the beach in front, and Tang Yuting followed Li Xuan. She twisted the net bag with one hand, held it away from her body, seemed to be afraid of the hermit crab.

When Li Xuan saw this, he couldn't help asking: "Tang Yuting, are you so afraid of this hermit crab?"

Tang Yuting blinked and said, "This crab looks like a spider and a centipede, which is indeed a bit scary."

Li Xuan laughed silently. The appearance of hermit crab is between shrimps and crabs, and it is long. It is indeed no problem to say that it looks like a spider and a centipede.

"When cooked, will you dare to eat it?" Li Xuan asked.

In fact, Li Xuan doesn’t like this thing very much. If Tang Yuting doesn’t even dare to eat it after cooking it for a while, then why are you catching it?

Tang Yuting nodded, "I'm not afraid of what's cooked."

Li Xuan nodded and continued to search.

Soon, the two found several hermit crabs.

Guba

Tang Yuting looked at Li Xuan, and every time he tapped his finger, the hermit crab fell out of the snail shell. The size of the hermit crab happened to be about the same size as the snail shell. He couldn't help but say: "There are so many conchs on this beach. Every hermit crab happened to find a suitable snail shell."

Li Xuan rolled his eyes and said, "There is no such coincidence in the world. The snail shell on the hermit crab was not found, but snatched. When the hermit crab found a conch of the right size, it would attack without mercy until it was killed, tear it apart and then drilled in by itself."

After the hermit crab drills into the empty snail shell, it will hook the top of the conch shell with its tail to prevent itself from being dragged out too.

Li Xuan took out a hermit crab from his net pocket and said, "Look, its legs are of different lengths. In fact, the division of labor between long and short legs is different. The short legs are responsible for supporting the inner wall of the screw shell, and the long legs are responsible for extending to the outside of the shell to crawl. Once there is any danger outside, it will quickly retract its body into the shell, and then use this large pliers to plug the screw shell to prevent enemies from pouring in from the entrance."

Tang Yuting raised her neck and looked carefully.

Li Xuan continued: "And hermit crabs do not end in one's own life. They will change shells several times in their life. The timing of shell changes depends on their size. Generally, they will choose conch shells or shells as their place of residence, but sometimes, they will also choose column cutters, even coconut shells, or corals as their place of residence."

At this time, Tang Yuting found another hermit crab. She quickly ran over excitedly and reached out to catch it.

"Be careful." Li Xuan was quick to see his eyes and quickly grabbed Tang Yuting's wrist and said, "This can't be caught."

Tang Yuting looked at Li Xuan curiously, wondering why.

Li Xuan stared at the shell of the hermit crab and said, "The sea anemones are symbiotic with it on the shell carried by this hermit crab."

Tang Yuting looked carefully and found that on the shell of the hermit crab, there was a little purple anemone blooming.

Li Xuan said: "The two are mutually beneficial symbiotic relationships. The toxic tentacles in the anemone will provide a certain degree of protection for the hermit crabs, while the hermit crabs provide a place for sea anemones to live in and provide leftover debris as food."

This symbiotic relationship between hermit crabs and sea anemones is completely a deliberate behavior.

Hermit crabs will actively place the anemones in an appropriate position on the shell to balance the center of gravity or effectively defend against the enemy.

When there are no predators, hermit crabs slowly lose their behavior of gaining sea anemones.

This behavior will immediately recover once there is a predator.

What’s more interesting is that there will be a battle between hermit crabs for sea anemones. Hermit crabs with strong force will snatch the anemones from hermit crabs with weak force.

Tang Yuting stroked her hair and suddenly said, "Brother Xuanzi, my dad bought sea anemones last time and came back to stew chicken soup. It tasted super good."

Li Xuan smiled and shook his head, saying, "Let's go, let's go around other places. It's enough to catch a few hermit crabs. You can't eat too much of this thing."

Tang Yuting asked in confusion: "Why can't you eat too much?"

Li Xuan said: "This is because hermit crabs have very mixed foods, such as rotten corpses and residues. They eat everything. A large amount of food residues will gather in their bodies. It's okay to eat a small amount of this thing, but it's really not good to eat too much."

Tang Yuting nodded obediently. She knew that Li Xuan majored in marine biology at the university. Since Li Xuan said that, it must be based on scientific evidence.
Chapter completed!