Queer Friendships 



enjoys by reason of its association with the hermit crab is 

 beneficial and may account for its rapid growth. 



In tropical Australia there are two kinds of very large 

 sea-anemones which are on friendly terms, the one with 

 a brilliantly coloured fish, the other with a prawn. To 

 make our story intelligible, let us explain that the sea- 

 anemone resembles an empty sack standing with its open 

 end uppermost. This open end forms the mouth and is 

 fringed with tentacles. The tentacles are waved about in 

 the water in which the anemone dwells and when they come 

 in contact with any creature suitable for food it is stung 

 and passed into the interior of the sack, which is the 

 anemone's stomach ; then the prey is digested and the 

 indigestible parts are thrown out later by the same way as 

 they entered. Well, curiously enough, the friendly fish and 

 prawn swim about amongst the tentacles of their respective 

 sea-anemones, who, on their part, never attempt to sting 

 their friends. When danger threatens, the fish or the 

 prawn, as the case may be, seeks safety in the anemone's 

 stomach, once more without suffering any harm. Now 

 these cases of friendship in nature are never one-sided, 

 but the case we are describing gave naturalists a difficult 

 puzzle to solve. 



The association seems so odd, so unnatural, nevertheless 

 a theory has been propounded to account for it and at least 

 it possesses the merit of being plausible. Both fish and 

 prawn are brilliantly coloured, as we have remarked ; 

 being so, they are likely to attract fishes of larger size on 

 the hunt for prey. When they are attacked, escape for 

 them is easy within the body of the anemone, as their 

 would-be attackers are at once paralysed by the anemone's 

 stings and passed into its stomach to form a tasty meal. 



The association of a certain fish with an American jelly- 

 fish is not quite so happy. The fish shelters beneath the 

 umbrella-like body of the jelly-fish and probably brings 

 much provender to its protector, just as in the case we 

 have mentioned above. Sometimes, however, whether for 



