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The serpent-skinned brittle star has a flat, disc-like body with file long, spindly arms extending outward from the edge of the disc. The texture of its body is granular, which is an important identification characteristic as it is not always the dark black-brown colour usually seen.These arms are thin and fragile, but highly mobile and flexible. The arms are segmented with tiny armour plated protecting each joint. The sides of each arm are protected by rows of short spines, folded close to the arm. Rarely, these arms are banded, but they are more commonly solid black-brown like the central body.At the base of each arm are two slits which lead into chambers where the brittle star's eggs can be fertilised. The young are brooded in these chambers and emerge as fully formed, but tiny, adults. Unlike many other brittle stars, the serpent-skinned brittle star has no free-swimming planktonic phase.This brittle star lives in large groups, often with thousands of individuals, on gravel and sandy surfaces on the South African coast, from the Cape to southern Namibia.

The crested bellowsfish is notable for its unusual body shape - round and flattened with an elongated snout and a thick, elongated first dorsal spine which points backwards. Its body is orange, often mottled with white stripes and blotches. It has large eyes, which are positioned close to the base of its snout.It inhabits the temperate waters of the southern oceans, most notably around Tristan da Cunha and Gough Island as well as the coasts of Australia and New Zealand. At least one sighting places them in South African waters too.It is a demersal species, living close to the seafloor at depths of up to 600m. It has not been studied enough to identify its prey, but other species of bellows fish feed on plankton and tiny bottom-dwelling crustaceans.The specimens at the Aquarium are from the island of Tristan da Cunha, where they are regularly caught in crayfish traps.

The schooling coachman is a white fish with two broad vertical black bars - one running across its pectoral fin to the front of its dorsal fin and the other from the tip of its ventral fin to just behind its dorsal fin. The coachman also has a small black bar extending up its forehead from its eye, and yellow pectoral and tail fins. It's most notable feature is the elongated fourth spine of its dorsal fin, leading into a long, white filament that extends far beyond the coachman's tail. The adult schooling coachman grows a short spine in front of each eye.It is no coincidence that this coachman looks very similar to the Moorish idol - both are species of butterflyfish. Their resemblance is so uncanny, that the schooling coachman is commonly called the "poorman's Moorish idol". The Moorish idol is a highly desirable and common fish in home saltwater aquaria (there's even one in Finding Nemo) and the schooling coachman is often sold as a cheaper alternative in petstores.As the name suggests, the schooling coachman commonly lives in large schools. It is common in lagoons and along reef walls on the south-eastern African coast, Red Sea and throughout the Indo-Pacific - even as far as Japan, Hawaii and New Zealand. Although it is found in tropical areas, it tends to prefer deep, cool waters and areas of cold-water upwelling.The schooling coachman is a carnivore, feeding on tiny organisms, particularly zooplankton and has a set of very fine, hair-like teeth (a feature common in butterflyfishes) that enable it to consume organisms that are so small that they are usually passed through the gills of other fish.The juvenile schooling coachman acts as a cleaner fish, picking parasites and bits of dead tissue off of larger fish species and this behaviour is also seen in some populations of adults where suitable client fish are present in abundance.

The bignose unicorn is a large member of the surgeonfish family and, although it is a unicornfish, it does not have the characteristic "horn" seen in many other species. Adults are a deep magenta-grey colour with small vertical blue bars on their sides, small blue spots near their belly and a characteristic, thick blue bar from eye to snout. Juvenile bignose unicorns are a dull yellow-green, with small blue spots and blue lips. They develop their hues of magenta and purple as they mature. This fish is capable of changing it's colour for camouflage and will turn grey-brown when threatened or when resting. The bignose unicorn has a wide range throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans, ranging from the KwaZulu-Natal coast to Japan, the Great Barrier Reef and the Galapagos Islands. Its preferred habitat is deep lagoons and the seaward margins of coral reefs, where they sometimes gather into large groups to feed on small zooplankton, particularly copepods. However, they are mostly solitary and feed on algae growing on the reef.

The smooth flutemouth is a very elongated fish that has a long filament projecting from its forked tail fin. The filament is lined with sensory pores, and may serve as a long-range sensory system for detecting prey.As a solitary, stealthy predator, the smooth flutemouth blends into the background and approaches its prey head-on. It eats by extending its jaws and engulfing live prey, particularly small fish, crustaceans and squid.It can be found widely in Indo-Pacific regions along shallow, rocky reefs and in the Mediterranean Sea and European waters as an invasive species. In its native waters, it is common on the African east coast, Red Sea and around Pacific islands such as Easter Island, Hawaii, Japan and New Zealand.

Red tjor-tjor are small pink fish of the porgy family that develop rows of reflective blue dots along their flanks as they mature.Their small mouths are equipped with several sharp incisors and two rows of molars, which they use for hunting small, bottom-dwelling invertebrates, such as echinoderms and polychaetes, and small fish, which they can dive up to 250m to find.Tjor-tjor are native to the Western Indian Ocean around South Africa, Madagascar and Mozambique, where they form schools in deep, sandy bays. Here they form an important prey animal for a large number of other species.Spawning season occurs in spring along the KwaZulu-Natal coast near the continental shelf. Larval red tjor-tjor drift as plankton in these waters or sink below the continental shelf to depths of up to 2km. Juvenile tjor-tjor are commonly found taking refuge in shallow bays on the coast of Southern Africa, with the highest abundance observed near Mossel Bay.

The Atlantic horseshoe crab lives in the shallow waters of the north-western Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, and in brackish coastal lagoons, where it can reach lengths of up to 60cm. The horseshoe crab lives in shallow, soft-bottomed habitats, where it ploughs through the upper layers of sand and mud in search of food. It’s large shield-like shell and splayed rear legs allows it to effectively shovel sediment aside. It is a scavenger, feeding on molluscs, polychaete worms, seaweed and fish carcasses that it exposes while ploughing. The Atlantic horseshoe crab is an important prey animal for loggerhead sea turtles, while their eggs are commonly eaten by seabirds. Traditionally, their eggs were also eaten by Native Americans. The horseshoe crab poses no threat to humans. Its long, scorpion-like tail contains no sting – it is used for balance and for pushing sand aside. Bright blue blood The blood of the horseshoe crab is blue, and has the unusual quality of clotting very rapidly when exposed to certain bacterial toxins in incredibly small doses thanks to a chemical called coagulan. Coagulan is used for testing the sterilization of pharmaceutical drugs, surgical equipment and vaccines Every FDA approved drug in the US must be tested this way. It has even been used to keep the International Space Station sterile. Unfortunately for horseshoe crabs, no synthetic method of producing coagulan has been developed, resulting in more than a quarter of a million crabs being harvested each year. To curb population decline, new methods are used that only take 30% of the crabs blood, allowing them to be released alive, although with a significantly diminished chance of survival. Ancient ocean dwellers Despite its name, the horseshoe crab is not a crab at all. It is a Chelicerate, the same phylum as spiders, ticks, mites, scorpions and the extinct sea scorpion. Today’s horseshoe crabs are the last in the ancient Xiphosuran order – a group closely related to the now-extinct trilobite. The first horseshoe crab evolved more than half a billion years ago, but they have changed very little in the last 300 million years. The Atlantic horseshoe crab is one of only four species of horseshoe crabs alive today. The other species are the mangrove horseshoe crab from Southeast Asia, the Indo-Pacific horseshoe crab ranging from India to Indonesia and the Chinese horseshoe crab. Larvae: Ancestral look-alikes During the breeding season, the horseshoe crab migrates to the tidal zone to lay eggs. Approximately 200 to 300 eggs are laid in a series of shallow depressions excavated in the beach sand. The male fertilises the eggs as they are being laid by the female. These eggs hatch into so-called “trilobite larvae” – so named because of their superficial resemblance to their ancient relative. Initially about 1cm long, a larva can swim and burrow in the sand. As it grows, it undergoes a series of moults, becoming progressively more like its parents.

The Picasso triggerfish is a robust, grey fish with a unique, notable pattern of stripes giving it the distinct appearance of a painters colour palette - hence its name after the famous painter Pablo Picasso. It's Hawaiian name, humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa, literally means "pig-snouted triggerfish."This pattern has a number of unique elements, that make identifying the Picasso triggerfish easy:

Sixline wrasses are small, colourful fish inhabiting coral reefs of the Indo-Pacific, ranging from KwaZulu-Natal and the Red Sea to the Ryukyu islands of Japan. They are characterized by their bright blue and orange lines.Thes small fish are aggressive and will protect their feeding territory from intruders. Despite this aggression, they are shy and will lurch amongst coral for protection from larger predators.Sixline wrasses are voracious feeders, preying on small bottom-dwelling crustaceans, and occasionally serving as cleaner fish when no bottom-dwelling prey is available.