At Blue Reef Aquarium Portsmouth, we hope you’re well and truly getting into the Christmas spirit. But if you feel like you could use an extra sprinkle of festive magic, we have just the thing to help!
While Santa Claus is busy checking his ‘naughty or nice’ list of names, we thought we’d put together our own list of animals with festive-sounding names, some of which we have here at Blue Reef Aquarium Portsmouth. So, in the run-up to the festive period, we hope you enjoy learning all about these uniquely named creatures, including exciting facts about their appearance, characteristics, habitat and more.
Peppermint shrimp
Peppermint is best known as the flavour of traditional Christmas candy canes. These tasty treats are thought to be the inspiration behind naming the peppermint shrimp with their red and white stripes, making them look like mini candy canes.
Peppermint shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni) are classed as cleaner shrimp, which means they have a symbiotic relationship with aiptasia (a type of sea anemone) and glass anemones because they remove parasites. In fact, they get most of their nutrients from these parasites.
Peppermint shrimp can be found swimming around off the coast of Florida, the Bahamas and the Caribbean, usually at depths between 3 to 90 feet below sea level. Lysmata wurdemanniFortunately, you won’t need to travel across the Atlantic to spot these little creatures. Our Nurseries Exhibit here at Blue Reef Aquarium Portsmouth is home to these tiny creatures, along with several other smaller marine species.
Christmas Island red crab
Christmas Island, found just off the coast of northern Australia in the Indian Ocean, is home to the Christmas Island red crab (Gecarcoidea natalis). But apart from their festive-sounding name, these invertebrates are also fairly famous for their migratory habits. These bright-red crabs ditch the rainforests of the island and head for the rivers to transport themselves into the ocean, where they breed and lay eggs in moist conditions during the rainy season. They’ll follow the exact same path at the same time each year, making their 5-mile journey just as predictable as Christmas!
Snowflake moray eel
In our Tropical Treasures Exhibit, you shouldn’t have any trouble spotting our snowflake moray eels (Echidna nebulosi). With their black and white mottled colourings giving them the appearance of snowflakes, these large eels are certainly captivating.
In the wild, they feed on small fish and crustaceans, although they don’t often see their prey coming due to poor vision. What they lack in eyesight, though, they make up for with their excellent sense of smell, which allows them to easily ambush prey. These eels have the unique ability to capture prey with their outer teeth and use their jaws to pull food into their stomachs.
Angelfish
What says Christmas more than an angel? They sit on top of the Christmas tree for many families and are symbols of protection and guardianship. They’re also the inspiration behind this fish’s name, but not because of the link to spiritualism and religion.
Angelfish (Pterophyllum) get their name because of their shape, which closely resembles the head, wings and dress of an angel when turned sideways. Found around the world living in freshwater and saltwater habitats, these fish species are a distinctive addition to our waters and can have many colour variations. Typically, their diet consists of a combination of invertebrates, small insects and crustaceans.
Angelfish might not be on the top of our Christmas trees for obvious reasons, but you can see species like Koran angel, queen angel and French angel in our Tropical Treasures Exhibit.
Sea angel
Continuing with the theme of angels, the sea angel is named after its ability to flap its wings and swim in open water.
Sea angels (Gymnosomata) are tiny invertebrates closely related to sea butterflies, sea slugs and snails. You aren’t likely to see one of these in the wild since they mostly live in the deep sea around 2,000 feet below the surface.
They may only be a few centimetres in size, but they can be fierce predators preying on sea butterflies and other swimming snails. When they spot their prey, they push out a finger-like tentacle, which then hooks the food and pulls it apart to eat, a bit like how starfish spit out their stomachs.
Christmas tree worm
The Christmas tree worm(Spirobranchus giganteus) is a colourful marine species which gets its name from its resemblance to tiny, decorated Christmas trees. But despite the misleading name, you won’t find these tiny, brightly coloured creatures anywhere near your Christmas tree.
This unique worm species has two colourful crowns sticking out of its tube-like body, which aren’t just for decoration and are actually used to help it eat and breathe. The crowns are the bit you’re most likely to spot since they normally keep the rest of their body burrowing in holes they dig in live coral. When they feel threatened or startled, Christmas tree worms can hide their entire bodies in the burrows to protect themselves from potential danger.
Since these worms are sedentary creatures, once they’ve found a spot they like, they won’t tend to move much. Because of this, their diet mostly includes phytoplankton they catch as it floats close by.
Christmas wrasse
Forget the Christmas wreaths – we’re all about Christmas wrasse. Also known as the far-less-festive-sounding ladder wrasse (Thalassoma trilobatum), this fish is typically found in the Indo-Pacific regions stretching from East Africa to the Pitcairn Islands.
This colourful fish species features distinctive flashes of blue, pink and green in stripes across their bodies. This can help them blend into the coral reefs they usually inhabit to keep them safe from predators.
Starfish
What would Christmas be without stars? Or rather, we mean star-shaped creatures…
Starfish (Asterias rubens) might be common in UK waters, but that doesn’t make them any less exciting to spot. With an average lifespan of 5-10 years, they’re mostly found in rockpools or shallow waters around the coastline. Here, they feed on shellfish by pulling their shells apart before spitting their stomachs into the shells and dissolving their prey to fully digest their food. How delightful!
At Blue Reef Aquarium Portsmouth, our Tropical Treasures Exhibit is home to multiple starfish species, including the chocolate chip starfish, scarlet serpent starfish, crown of thorns starfish, cushion stars and spiny starfish. Why not come along and meet them all?
We hope this list has raised your spirits just in time for Christmas. Fancy coming along to Blue Reef Aquarium Portsmouth and meeting some of our fantastic marine life with and without festive names? Book your tickets here and start planning your fun-filled family day out.