Slime, Snot and Guts Barney's Barrier Reef

Australia, home of surfer dudes, strange lingo, "Fair dinkum!",

sunshine and the Barrier Reef.

It's the world's biggest, most spectacular coral reef.

And every creature is linked to another.

A huge family tree dating back 18 million years.

From the miniscule to the mammoth to the miraculous,

they're all connected in Barney's Barrier Reef!

Are you sure about eating all that?

Why?

Have you forgotten what the show's about?

-Why are you dressed like that?

-We need to be prepared,

and that includes having a very strong stomach.

What is it about?

Slime...

..snot...

and guts.

Yeah, I'm not hungry any more.

What, slime, snot AND guts?

-Do we have to have all three at once?

-Yeah! They're all connected!

So, here is your slime prevention suit.

You'll need it, because it's time for slime, snot and guts.

Cool.

So, in our world, slime is pretty gross.

Yeah, as is snot and guts. Ew.

But in the fish world, they're used much more imaginatively.

They're crucial for survival.

It helps them move, eat, sleep and even protect themselves.

-He's SNOT kidding!

-No.

Guess the name of this next fish. I bet you won't get it.

Er, pink wobble fish?

-No.

-Rocking pink fish?

No, I'll give you a clue.

ROARS

Ah! Rhinoceros fish!

Aw! So close! This, in fact, is called the rhinopias fish.

I can see the resemblance now.

Although I've never seen a pink rhinoceros.

Yeah, that's down to his pinky, super slimy rhinopias skin.

Ah, so he looks and feels like a pink blancmange.

Yeah, rhinopias, like almost all other fish, produce their own snot,

which they use to coat their skin.

Ew! Gross! So, they make their own snot coat.

Yeah, it's like a layer of slimy snot

that moves from the head to the fins to the tail.

Why do they do that?

Let me explain. The principal function of fish mucus

is to remove parasites and dirt from the skin.

Cool. So it's like a snot bath gel, Dr Barnacles.

Confirmed, It also helps the fish glide smoothly through the water.

OK, so our snotty rhinopias comes complete with a slimy mucus coat

to help him move, keep him clean and free from infection. Next!

Ah, little baby fish.

They're actually spiny chromis babies.

They're a species of damselfish.

-Am not!

-Aw, I think they're cute.

Why don't get lost or blown away?

Mummy and Daddy keep an eye on them.

"Stay together. Stop messing around. Oi, you, come here!"

It's good to know parents nag kids in the ocean too.

Yeah, these parents are very dedicated,

but this isn't every kid's idea of good parenting.

-Oh, yes?

-Hmm, damselfish produce mucus on their scales

which their babies then nibble on.

-Oh, no!

-Eww. So they feed off their parents' snot?

Yeah, it's a snot buffet for these little tiddlers.

-Yummy!

-Gross! I mean,

I don't always like my mum's dinners, but that's one meal I would not eat.

Hmmm. Which reminds me of my favourite joke.

What's the difference between bogies and broccoli?

I don't know.

Children won't eat broccoli!

The rhinopias fish and the spiny chromis

both have ingenious uses for their snot coats.

So, the connection is snot jackets.

They're happy little chappies. Who are they?

Meet the cleaner wrasse, letting their customers know

they're ready for work.

Hello! Anyone want a snot wash?!

Ew, a snot wash?! You know what?

These ocean dudes are a bit snot obsessed, if you ask me.

Hey!

As we've found out mucus helps protect fish and keep them clean,

but it must taste pretty good too, as these have a real taste for it.

How do you mean?

They spend their whole day nibbling on other fish.

It's an I'll scratch your back and you scratch mine relationship.

The fish line up for their daily scrub

and the cleaner wrasse get to feast on yummy snot.

But why would they want to eat that?

Because, in the snot are the gnathiid isopods.

Otherwise known as deadly parasites.

They can make the fish really, really ill.

When the super hero wrasses eat the mucus,

they eat the isopods from their fishy client scales,

leaving them germ free until the next evil parasite attack.

And they don't hang about.

Your average wrasse can eat more than 1,000 isopods in a day.

-And, all the snot that goes along with it.

-Well, that's a lot of snot.

Like the spiny chromis, it seems that snot is quite a healthy meal

for reef residents like the wrasse.

The connection is mucus eating. Eww.

Any more snotty contenders?

This is fun, peek-a-boo!

Show me someone who doesn't love a clownfish.

Aw, they're so cute. So nice to see them playing.

They look like they're having fun, but they're rubbing themselves

against the anemone to coat themselves in the anemone's mucus.

-Ooh, that feels better.

-Lovely slime!

Why would they want to do that?

Anemones sting, but their mucus protects clownfish from being stung,

which means they can hang out and bounce around without any worries.

Ah, it's another symbiotic relationship.

Yep. And it means the bigger fish who might want to gobble them up

can't go near them.

-What?!

-Why is one fish bigger than the other?

Well, the bigger one is the girl and the small one is the boy.

The clownfish is yet another mucus addict.

At least they're not eating it.

Their love of snot links them to the cleaner wrasse

as both use it for their own benefit.

Pretty Polly, pretty Polly.

Polly want a cracker.

The parrotfish, by day, reef rock chompers.

By night, serene snot sleepers.

-Snot sleepers?

-Yep. See the cocoon surrounding him?

-Yeah.

That's the parrotfish's very own deluxe, snot sleeping bag.

-It looks more like a cobweb.

-No, it's snot all right.

This is their for the night.

Once they've found a little space

they produce their very own mucus sleeping bag

and camp out for the night.

They get left alone because the sleeping-bag

-conceals their smell and tastes yucky.

-Oh, no!

But, you haven't heard the best bit.

When they get up, they have to eat their way out.

What, they eat their own snot?!

Ew, they don't let anything go to waste in this ocean world!

Who'd have thought snot could be so useful?

Not everyone's idea of a comfy bed, but it's certainly different.

Clownfish and parrotfish uses mucus to defend themselves.

Clownfish cover themselves in the anemone's mucus

so they don't get stung and the parrotfish surround themselves in it

to get a good night's kip.

They both use snot to protect themselves.

-What are you doing?

-I'm having a bogey! Boogie!

A bogey boogie! Get it?! Join in!

Moving on! Reef-Cap time!

We've slithered from the rocky rhinopias

to the snot-guzzling parrotfish. How are they all connected?

Our snot-covered pinky rhinopias fish

was linked to the baby spiny chromis,

-who eat snot off their parents' bodies.

-Yuck!

At least it's mucus from a relative.

Cleaner wrasse eat snot off the bodies of lots of different fish.

Clownfish bathe in anemone mucus to live in their tentacles sting free.

-Yeeha!

-Clever, but not as clever as

making your own snot sleeping bag to keep away enemies.

-Then eating it to get out.

-Waste snot, want not!

-Gross!

-Here's our next slime addict.

-Ew! Ew!

This means we're entering severe venomous animal territory.

Oh, yes. We're on venom high alert, Gem.

Meet the blue ringed octopus.

Those flashing blue rings mean he's either threatened...

..or excited.

There's a crab! Dinner-time! Yum!

He has his own in-built warning system.

Yeah. And for a very good reason. This is no ordinary octopus.

Firstly, he uses saliva to kill his prey.

How can you kill with spit?

When your spit is venomous.

It's powerful enough to knock down 26 humans within minutes.

Woah!

Calling Dr Barnacles!

Well, the octopus has two deadly toxins in its saliva.

One to kill its favourite dinner-time snack, crabs.

Uh-oh, useless pincers!

And the other is used against predators like eels as defence.

The toxic spit paralyses the crab allowing the octopus to munch away

while it's still alive.

Oh, man!

So he's like an underwater James Bond villain!

The parrotfish produces a snot sleeping bag that tastes

disgusting and the octopus has disgustingly dangerous spit.

Urgh, toxic spit! That's cool.

The parrotfish and the blue ringed octopus are linked

because of their toxic spit.

Let's do the crab dance.

-# Hands in the air

-Like you have leg hair

-# Juggle and lift

-For the water to shift

-# Scratch and lift

-And wave...to Dave!

# Hands out, hands together

# Ooh, er, look at the weather! #

Phew, now that was tiring. Where were we?

We're about to find out if the porcelain crab

prefers slime, snot or guts.

He's a snot fiend, this one.

Not only are his hands covered in it, he also covers himself in

anemone mucus, like the clownfish.

So, he too can hang out in the anemone's tentacles.

Oh, this is comfy.

See how his hands are like combs.

These are covered in mucus which allows him to comb through the water

for food which stick to his snotty hands which he feeds into his mouth.

How cool! Hands that you can stick food to.

-Now that would be fun. And convenient.

-Thanks.

Like the blue ringed octopus, the porcelain crab

uses slimy stuff to feed.

But while the blue ringed octopus has poisonous spit,

the porcelain crab uses harmless snot to stick food to his claws.

The moral is, if he hands you a sandwich,

don't eat it, it's got snot on it. Next, please!

Why have I got a feather duster in my hand?

It's a clue to our next animal, but whilst you're there...

Oh, yeah! Clean up whilst you're there,

but it's a clue to the next animals. I know your game is!

Aw, the little feather duster worms, they're so cute.

What?! No, they're worms, Gem, and as we all know, worms are not cute.

These worms are cool.

Yeah, but they're still part of the worm family.

-Related to those slimy brown ones in the soil.

-Hold on! One minute!

-I won't tolerate worm discrimination. Worms get a very bad press.

-Oh, no!

With people like you going, ew, they're slimy and dirty!

But, for the record, worms were here long before us

-and they have some really important jobs to do.

-OK! Woah!

Didn't know you felt so passionately about worms.

Well, it's unfair. They're great recyclers as compost worms,

and these guys are no different.

Feather duster worms are like filter feeders,

using their feathery hands or radials as they're officially called,

to pick up food and other bits from the water.

What good does that do, Mrs over-reacting worm campaigner?

It helps keep water clean and pollution-free.

Where's the slime factor? Or do you just like them cos they're pretty?!

No! They live in a tube made from a kind of snot cement.

It's mucus and sand mixed together.

The slime is also on their feathery hands.

When it filter the water for particles, bits go into its mouth

-and some are used to build the tube it lives in.

-A snot, tube home.

Yep. Worms are quite ingenious.

I wouldn't go that far. But they are pretty cool with their sticky hands.

I wonder if he stole that idea from the porcelain crab?!

Like the porcelain crab, the feather duster worm

uses its mucus-covered feathery nets to feed.

Can there be any more uses left for snot, I wonder?

You ain't seen nothing yet!

Don't ever ask a sea cucumber to do anything urgent.

-They travel at the speed of seven and a half inches per hour.

-Huh?!

And you had the cheek to have a go at worms!

Hang on! I didn't say they weren't talented, Gem!

I'd now like to demonstrate how a sea cucumber eats.

The things I do for this show. The sea cucumber is one slimy geezer.

His feet are sticky. Combine that with the fact he eats sand

and you have the easiest eating in the ocean.

There's got to be more to it than that. Even for a sea cucumber!

It's not difficult to eat sand when you're travelling on it.

It has several ways of sticky feeding.

Some of its tentacles scoop up sand. Some are covered in mucus,

the sand sticks to them, but this is helped by the fact

that the sea cucumber produces loads of snot. The sand sticks on easily.

Eww. So they look slimy and snotty.

For your information, they serve a very important purpose in the reef.

By gnoshing up the sand, they filter the sand and keep the reef clean.

The problem is, when they vacuum up that much sand,

well, what goes in, must come out.

-Somehow.

-Ew, Barney.

There's more! For his next trick,

he'll spew copious amounts of sticky white gunge.

-Dare I ask where that's coming from?

-Haha, his bum.

Nothing would surprise me. With a sea SPEWcumber.

Those are called Cuvierian tubules.

They're stored in the cucumber's bottom as a defence mechanism.

So when he's scared or angry, he releases his very own silly string?!

Yeah! Extremely sticky and smelly string that entangles his predators

and allow the cucumber to escape.

A snot-covered body and slimy silly strings spewing,

is there no end to his talents?!

Apparently not!

So, the sea cucumber's sticky body

links him to the feather duster worms with their mucus tubes.

And they're linked by slimy body suits.

Enough of your sea cucumber obsession, it's time for a Reef-Cap.

You don't have to go far to find slime, snot or guts in the ocean.

I thought you couldn't beat a snot sleeping bag, but I was so wrong!

The blue ringed octopus so outgrosses the parrotfish

with its deadly toxic saliva.

Luckily, the porcelain crab is not fierce at all.

He likes to boogie with his bogey. It's bogey boogie.

The feather duster worm is just like a feather duster,

but has a slimy feeding fan.

But for one big snot fest, you only have to look at the sea cucumber.

He's sticky all over.

So, are you ready for more slime, snot and guts, Gem?

Ooh! Bring it on!

OK!

Who's this cute looking...thing?

I shall give you a clue, Sherlock.

A hare? It looks nothing like one.

I know, but it's called that because its ears stick up like a hare.

It's related to other slimy wonders like snails and clams.

Aw, just looks like a cute alien to me.

Well, he may look cute, but he has two rather odd slimy skills.

Uh-oh!

He may look like he's innocently sliding along the ocean,

but look closely, and...

Wa-hey! Look at that!

That is his poo cannon.

-Poo cannon?!

-He ejects his poo from his hole on his back.

He fires out pellets the size of raisins a few times every minute.

That's not all.

Here it is innocently trotting along the sea floor.

Gnoshing on grass and algae, and voila!

Woah! He's disappeared in a puff of purple smoke.

He's still there for the moment.

This distracts his enemies and allows him to escape

-from any creatures eyeing him up for dinner.

-Where has he gone?

Wow! Now, that is cool!

So, this slimy but cute alien isn't what he seems.

He can fire poo at random and release stinky ink.

His slimy gut antics link him to the sea cucumber

with his silly string spewing bottom.

Woah, watch out, mate, there's a cliff! Oh!

He's a bit clumsy. Don't these Aussie sea stars

have a million, zillion feet or something?

You'd think he'd have enough to stop him falling.

Not quite a zillion, Barney, more like 20 legs.

But, they have thousands of feet, so yes,

you'd think they'd be able to walk straight.

Crown-of-thorn sea stars are predators.

They have deadly poisonous spines and they move by pumping water

in and out of many tube like feet. They get together in large groups

and declare war on their favourite corals.

Sea stars go to war! Oh, yeah!

They're not given thousands of feet for nothing.

They feed on coral colonies where they grip on with their suction caps.

Imagine being covered by a giant suckered bath mat.

In the centre of their underbelly is a mouth,

-and inside that is their stomach.

-Hold the phone.

I suggest you put a hold on that cereal.

When they find a tasty coral,

they force their stomachs out through their mouths

and eat the coral straight off its skeleton.

Er, I'm not so hungry any more.

Are you telling me they spew their guts

and eat their food before they put it in their mouth?

Yeah, that's freaky all right.

All of this from an animal with no brain.

-Huh?!

-His gut-spewing antics

link him to the sea hare with his slimy purple ink bombs.

Connected by slimy juices, nice!

We've had loads of slime and snot and some really gross guts.

Whatever next?

Ole!

Meet the nudibranch or as they're also known, naked slugs.

I've never seen a slug as colourful as this before.

These are...dur, dur, dur...

flesh-eating slugs.

Don't be ridiculous, Barney. Slugs don't eat flesh. Do they?!

Don't worry, they don't touch humans.

But they like animals that sting, like jelly fish, anemone, corals

and they absorb bits of the creature they've for their own self defence.

-OK. Dr Barnacles, can you explain?

-Of course I can.

If they'd gulped down a sea anemone,

they could use the sting of that anemone to protect themselves.

Or they can borrow toxins from other animals like sponges.

All of this goes into their slimy coat.

It makes them taste really bad.

Yuck! Despite looking pretty they have a poisonous, mucus coat.

-Yes. One nick is usually enough to put a predator off.

-Oh, no!

-The mucus doesn't just taste bad, does it?

-No, That's right.

When they get stressed,

they can produce the poisonous snot which is deadly to other animals.

The lesson is don't make the a nudi angry

-or face a poisonous snot attack.

-Absolutely.

The crown-of-thorns use deadly slime to digest prey,

and the nudibranch creates its own poisonous slime jacket.

Clever stuff. OK. Who's next?

We all know the reef has to have coral, and the Barrier Reef

here has the most beautiful coral in the world.

But without the help of mucus, it wouldn't look so lovely.

Corals are great big slime fans.

Ever wondered why they don't dry out in the scorching sun?

-Occasionally.

-They produce their own sunblock.

-Cool! So they have any spare? I could do with some.

-Don't go there.

It comes in the form of sticky, smelly mucus.

Snot sunblock. Of course.

You can see it glistening.

So, like the nudibranch, they rely on mucus to protect themselves.

Snot, I mean spot on!

I'll never blow my nose again

without marvelling at the superpower of snot.

-It's just a bogey.

-I know.

But this is the ocean world, we both know it's a bit more than bonkers.

Well, let's SNOT argue!

Sorry, I couldn't resist it. Seriously, it's time for a Reef-Cap.

He looks like a rhino, but feels like a blancmange.

The slimy rocking rhinopias fish.

Linked to baby chromis whose first meal is their parents' snot. Gross!

Not as gross as the cleaner wrasse who cleans it off anyone who asks.

Not my idea of a good job.

Clownfishes know that by wrapping themselves in anemone mucus,

they can live there sting free.

The parrotfish has to spend 30 minutes making a snot cocoon

to make sure he's safe from predators.

I'd do that if it meant I was safe from the blue ringed octopus,

whose deadly spit can kill 26 humans.

Thank goodness for the porcelain crab and his silly dance.

His mucus hands mean he only has to wave in the air to grab some grub.

The funny feather duster worm, the cutest worm I've ever seen,

has a fan of the slime to eat, but also keeps the water clean.

The sea cucumbers are just one big slimy lump.

So snotty, the food just sticks to them.

But, sorry, nothing beats a poo cannon.

Not forgetting the crown-of-thorns,

who push their stomachs out of their mouths and feed.

-That surely is as gross as it gets.

-Almost!

Deadly poisonous slime comes close,

no wonder the nudibranch looks so happy.

No-one loves mucus as much as coral. They make their own snot sun lotion.

-That was slime, snot and guts. Good fun, wasn't it?!

-Yeah.

-Cool.

-I'm going to go now. Me too. See you later.

-OK.

-All right. Bye.

-Bye.

I new you were going to do that!

See, great minds think alike! So, that's the slime and the snot.

Where's the guts?

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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