Ocean+Shore+Fiction

__Monty the Crab __ __By: Sara J. and Colleen H. __ __ ﻿ __ Monty, the sea crustacean, wanted to take a little break from swimming in the salty water, so he took a trip to the shore.

The minute his eyes popped out of the sea, they saw a sight Monty never wanted to see! He saw the Common Periwinkle having lunch on its prey, the Water Horsetail.

Mr. Water Horsetail had helped Monty many times, in multiple situations, but he could be mean too, so Monty said, “Oh Well! Too bad for you!”

Munch, munch, munch. The Common Periwinkle was satisfied with its meal. That was enough for Monty! He wanted to have lunch with his friends, Clemence The Clown Fish (he’s a clownfish), NikiCoCo (the green algae), and Magatu (a clam). So Monty headed back in the water.

On his way back down, he passed Clemence The Clown Fish swimming near a sea anemone.

“Helllllllloooo, Clemence!” Monty bellowed.

“Hey, Monty! Seen my new home? Of course you haven’t! We just moved in!” He waved a fin towards a pile of bivalves half-filled with kitchenware. He then directed the flipper towards the sea anemone. “This is Sean (pronounced seen, not Shawn)!”

Sean gave Monty a small wave of a stinger.

Monty called out, “Helllllllloooo, Sean! I’m so glad that Clemence moved into you!” Then a question hit Monty. “Sean?”

“Yes Monty?”

“I don’t mean to be rude, Clemence is a great fish, and my best friend, but don’t you mind a fish living ‘in’ you? I mean, I know I would!”

“Oh no! Not at all! I enjoy helping out a fish in need of shelter and protection! I don’t get hurt by it—in fact, I quite couldn’t care less!”

“Oh…. Well very interesting! I’m glad I saw you, Clemence, because I wanted to ask if we could round up the gang and have lunch at that new restaurant upstream!”

“Sounds great, Monty! See you soon!” replied Clemence.

Monty crawled some more until he saw his other friends, NikiCoCo and Magatu. NikiCoCo is a green alga that lives inside Magatu (a clam)’s shell. NikiCoCo receives protection from enemies, carbon dioxide, and nutrition by living in Magatu’s shell. Magatu gets oxygen and food. It’s a mutual relationship.



Monty invited NikiCoCo and Magatu to lunch upstream. They all met Clemence there, had a great lunch, and separated to go back to their homes. On his way home, Monty spotted an odd dot on his belly. It was Eneubus, a sacculina. Eneubus was a barnacle that proceeded to infect Monty. Since Monty was a boy crab and not a girl crab, Eneubus had to change Monty into a girl crab.



“Noooooooo!!!!!” screamed Monty.

Colleen H.

BiomesSixth10

Ocean Shore Conservation

Ocean Shore Facts

Ocean Shore Home

Ocean Shore Food Web

Ocean Shore Bibliography