Giant Triton

The giant triton is an active predator and is known to aggressively chase its prey, which it detects with its excellent sense of smell. It prefers to eat other snails and sea stars, most notably the crown-of-thorns starfish.

Large outbreaks of the crown-of-thorn starfish, which feed on reef-building corals, are known to threaten the health of coral reefs. The giant triton is one of the only natural predators of that starfish. For that reason, this species is considered by the Australian government to be extremely important to reef health and is given legal protection in that country and others. Once the giant triton chases down a snail or starfish, its venomous saliva paralyzes the prey.

The marine snail grabs its food using its foot and saws through the starfish’s skin with its radula. Upon penetrating the skin, the Giant Triton will paralyze the prey with its saliva and feed at its leisure. The saliva of this sea snail contains sulphuric acid and is able to dissolve the calcareous bodies of sea urchins.

The Triton does not paralyze smaller animals; instead, it eats them whole. They spit out poisonous or unwanted shells, spines, and parts later, but they will attempt to eat most edible animals in their path.

Stenopus Spinosus

Did you know that the stenopus spinosus is a type of "cleaner shrimp"?

To label a shrimp species a "cleaner shrimp" it has to be documented on video or on a sequence of photos picking something from the surface or the mouth of a "client species". This condition is rarely fulfilled but in the case of this shrimp this was achieved last year (2020) in Madeira Island where a Mediterranean cleaning shrimp was documented in a symbiotic cleaning relationship with a Moray eel.