Can't We All Just Get Along?

Because the seas are "teeming with life", the marine environment is unusually full of animals sharing space in a variety of symbiotic relationships. Many of these are visible to the naked eye and a delight to observe.
"Finding Nemo" is one of my all time favorite movies and though the setting is Australia instead of the Florida Keys, much of what is depicted in the cartoon quite accurately represents what is found in reefs around the world, including the Keys.
In the beginning of the movie, Marlin and his family are living in the safety of a large anemone and in the Florida reefs we find a variety of similar symbiotic relationships happening with anemones.

One of the largest and most common anemones in Florida is the Giant Caribbean Sea Anemone, Condylactis gigantea . Usually we will find 1-5 of these beautiful animals on a typical dive at the work site. These creatures' tentacles come in a variety of colors: all purple, green, brown, orange or blue. Most often they are cream-colored with pink or purple tips. Usually hidden is their stocky, fleshy body column which is usually attached to a rock, coral, or some other hard surface on the bottom.
Anemones belong to the phylum Cnidaria which includes the corals and jellyfish. These animals all possess a unique type of cell called nematocysts which enable the animals to defend or feed themselves by the harpooning action of these stinging cells. These nematocysts are lethal to many small marine animals but the callouses of most snorkeler's fingers are thick enough so that no sting is felt if you touch their tentacles. Usually there is just a sticky sensation when the tentacles stick to your skin as the animal attempts to inject its mini harpoons into your finger.

This stinging characteristic of Condylactis makes it all the more interesting as to how creatures come to live among the nematocyst-loaded tentacles and yet there is exactly where other species live. If the snorkeler waits patiently and looks closely at the tentacles of any Condylactis they find, they will almost always be rewarded with a small (1/2 inch long) but BEAUTIFUL shrimp, most often a Spotted Cleaner Shrimp like the one in the macro photo above. The pictured shrimp is shown standing on the tentacles of a Condylactis. You can see the white spots on the tentacles which are the stinging cells.
For about 2 1/2 hours after a shrimp first moves into an anemone, the anemone makes aggressive actions and the shrimp defensive actions towards each other. But then anemone relaxes and the shrimp appears to develop a membrane which protects it from the sting. Shrimp that have been removed and washed off in studies need another 2 1/2 hour acclimation period to re-develop this protection.
After the adjustment hours are over, the anemone provides protected shelter for the tiny shrimp and the shrimp appears to clean the anemone as well as foster the growth of another organism which shares a vital symbiosis with the anemone, zooxanthellae, a tiny type of algae crucial to the anemone's survival and also often providing the pigment which colors the anemone. 
Those of us created in the image of God could take a few cues from these two invertebrates, very different from each other yet living together in a way that both are blessed by the actions of the other. And once again, the blue waters of the Keys reveal two fascinating creatures waiting to delight the observant diver and testify of a very creative Creator.