Sometimes when you see a horseshoe crab, it has things hanging all over it. It looks like it's laying in the middle of a garbage pile. That's because many animals may live on a horseshoe crab such as barnacles, blue mussels, slipper shells, bryozoans, sponges, flat worms, microscopic bacteria and diatoms. On its back it may have barnacles hitching a ride to the bay from a little ditch or puddle filled with water. Once the barnacles get to the bay, they can get to the bottom and start a new life, or a horseshoe crab may have slipper shells or mussels living on it for a long time.
     Although many animals may attach themselves to a horseshoe crab, the only one the horseshoe crab worries about is bacteria  The rest it ignores. Bacteria may eat the shell and flow in before the blood can clot it. That's not good. Also, bacteria can get into the horseshoe crab when it is sick and moving very slowly. Then a flat worm will come along and lay its eggs on its gills which means even more bacteria comes in.

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