Cornish Sucker
This week’s Species in Focus is the Cornish Sucker. This unique looking fish may be little but packs a powerful ability to latch on to rocky surfaces using its adapted pelvic fins.
This week’s Species in Focus is the Cornish Sucker. This unique looking fish may be little but packs a powerful ability to latch on to rocky surfaces using its adapted pelvic fins.
The Rock Pool Project Team pick out their top Rock Pooling Books
The broad-clawed porcelain crab is a charismatic little rock poolers favourite. It is the most common species of porcelain crab found in the UK and can often be found clinging tightly to the underside of rocks below mid tide level.
Our second species in focus features probably the most popular new arrival to our shores in recent years. Well certainly in Cornwall anyway, where this charming little crab is named after the region's patron saint: St Piran.
The Cushion star (Asterina gibbosa) is a little, well camouflaged starfish that is commonly found in rockpools on many of the UK coasts.
Following up on February Half Term which saw us host our first monthly event at Castle Beach for the year, we are now going to be advertising some information about hotels from some of our favourite rock pooling locations in Cornwall, along with information about the hotels!
Galathea squamifera, the common squat lobster, is a species of intertidal crustacean. Don’t be fooled by the name- these fancy fellows are actually more closely related to hermit crabs than lobsters.
The beadlet anemone (Actinia equina) is small red anemone that looks like red circular blobs on rockpools and is found on most UK rocky shores. They only reveal their short tentacles when underwater and use the base of their body as a strong sucker to keep them attached to the shore.
With their bunny-like head tentacles and charismatic expressions, these marvelous molluscs are always sure to bring a smile to your rock pool adventures.
The rock pool shrimp (Palaemon elegans) is very common in our rockpools and is often confused with other shrimp species like the common prawn (P. serratus). P. elegans has a transparent body with dark brown stripes along its carapace and six abdominal segments with yellow and blue banded legs. They can be differentiated from other shrimp species by their rostrum (a long appendage that looks like the shrimp’s nose and has several serrations). P. elegans has a much straighter rostrum than P. serratus with 8-9 serrations, 2-3 are behind their eyes. These shrimp can get to 63mm in length but are usually found much smaller than that; around 30mm.
