Candy Crab

Image: David Rolla
Hoplophrys oatesi

Pear drops, lollipops and all a sweet tooth likes
Crunch 'em, munch 'em, chew 'em up
But be careful of the spikes!

Image: Moorea Biocode

The Candy Crab is a delightful, little sweetie just 2 cm (0.8) long, the perfect size to pop in your mouth and enjoy mankind's sugary attempt to capture the essence of the chemical cocktail known as a strawberry.

Image: Tom Demeyer

Or it would be, were it not for the legs, the spikes and the general crabbiness.

Video: liquidguru

The spikes and bright colours are more about camouflage than taunting us like a painful honey dumpling or a hurty-hurty-schnookums. They disappear among the Indo-Pacific soft corals they live in and feed on whatever they can get their itty-bitty, clippy-claws on.

Video: Shane Siers

Sometimes they tear off polyps from the coral and attach them to their body to improve the camouflage.

Image: Nick Hobgood

It's a good thing they're as small as they are... schmoopsie-poo ain't so snuggly when it's covered in eviscerated fish. Unless, you know... you're into that sort of thing.