Ctenophora predation by ctenophores may control the populations of small zooplanktonic organisms such as copepods, which might otherwise wipe out the phytoplankton (planktonic plants), which are a vital part of marine food chains. Almost all ctenophores are predators – there are no vegetarians and only one genus that is partly parasitic. If food is plentiful, they can eat 10 times their own weight per day. While "Beroe" preys mainly on other ctenophores, other surface-water species prey on zooplankton (planktonic animals) ranging in size from the microscopic, including mollusc and fish larvae, to small adult crustaceans such as copepods, amphipods, and even
Freshwater crab where the eggs hatch as juveniles, with the larval stages passing within the egg. The broods comprise only a few hundred eggs (compared to hundreds of thousands for marine crabs) each of which is quite large, at a diameter of around . The colonisation of fresh water has required crabs to alter their water balance; freshwater crabs can reabsorb salt from their urine, and have various adaptations to reduce the loss of water. In addition to their gills, freshwater crabs have a "pseudo-lung" in their gill chamber that allows them to breathe in air. These developments have pre-adapted freshwater crabs