The Ocean is full of interesting creatures. Here are some crabs. There are eight crabs: One is a craft show crab (the little guy up front) and then there is Claude the Beanie Baby crab and Digger the ty dyed Beanie Buddy on the left and the big orange fellow is Digger the Beanie Buddy and Digger the Beanie Baby red crab. We also have a little purple shore crab from Wild Republic and the pink crab below is Elmira from Douglas. The blue-legged crab is Buster, also from Douglas.

Crabs and lobsters are crustaceans (Crustacea). There are 26,000 species in the world. Most of them live in or near saltwater. They have jointed legs, two pairs of antennae and an external skeleton. The skeleton is molted periodically.

The light blue ghost crab (Ocypode quadrata) blends in with the white sand on a cloudy afternoon or evening. On sunny days its shadow and its black eyes on long stalks are easily seen and the animal will remain hidden until nightfall. Large numbers of ghost crabs live on the sandy beaches of the Atlantic coast from New Jersey to Florida. They live in the sand dunes and dig burrows in the sand on the seashore side of the dunes, which are just out of reach of the high tide.

Here are three lobsters. At left is Pinchers the Beanie Baby, then another lobster from the Stuffed Animal House and the last little lobster is from Ganz and is a Soft Spot with sound. These lobsters are in our Gift Shop.

The two jellyfish are named Goochy. One is a Beanie Baby and the other is a Beanie Buddy made by Ty Inc.

Jellyfish belong to the phylum Coelenterata. They are water-dwelling animals. The name Coelenterata literally means hollow intestine and refers to the central cavity of the animal. These animals are translucent and gelatinous. They come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors and they all have long, dangling tentacles equipped with stingers for obtaining food and fighting off predators. Bathers and swimmers take note: The sting is poisonous and has a paralyzing effect.

The Coelenterata is made up of four classes: Hydrozoa, Scyphozoa, Anthozoa and Ctenophora. Jellyfish are found in the Scyphozoan and Hydrozoan classes. Comb jellies and sea walnuts have a superficial resemblance to jellyfish and are often called jellyfish. They belong to the Ctenophoran class.

Jellyfish can be as small as 1/16 of an inch across to over 6 feet. The Portuguese Man-of-War (Physalia physalia) has tentacles up to 50 feet long. The By-the-wind Sailor is about 2 to 4 inches wide with short tentacles

Species and individuals are most numerous in warm tropic seas, but jellyfish can also be found in colder waters; in fact, one of the larger medusae, Chrysaora, is found in the North sea.

Other Oceanarium tanks include:

Crabs | Dolphin | Eel | Fish | Harp Seal | Manatee | Manta Ray | Octopus | Oceanarium | Orca | Otter | Seahorse | Sea Lion | Sea Star | Sea Turtle | Seal | Shark | Snail | Walrus | Whale | Whale Shark