Muck-Diving vor Dauin

And again we go to the little creatures who have a lot to do with it:

The small snail from the Costalisiella family is known for its tricky “stealing” technique, also known as kleptoplasty. The stolen, undigested plastids of the alga, the so-called kleptoplastids, are stored and continue to supply the snail with nutrients that they produce using light.

So it's something like a stolen solar power plant.

Because of its appearance, divers also call it Shaun the sheep. This species was only discovered in 1993 and is only about 1-2 mm in size.

Just imagine, real sheep could do that too: first eat a bit of grass and then just put it in the sun, drink some water and the rest happens by itself.

The eggs are carefully placed in a circle on the algae

And if the components ingested only serve to scare off predators because it doesn't taste good. Like the next two:

A larger snail, therefore much easier to film:

And because it is so beautiful: The soft coral crab can probably camouflage itself extremely well with the absorbed pigments of the coral and is therefore not easy to spot

Interesting strategies for very small creatures. When muck diving, or rather dirt diving, you see what appear to be barren sand surfaces with completely different eyes and are amazed at the diversity and beauty of the small creatures.