The farther you go from this rich center, the fewer species you see. Australia, close to this coral core, has about 2,000 species of fish. American Samoa, farther away, drops to about half that with 1,000 fish species. And Hawaii, thousands of miles away from the coral reef center of the world, has less than 500 kinds of fish. After death, the trumpets' enormous shells provide homes for equally enormous hermit crabs.
Crabs are scavengers that clean the reef floor of dead plant and animal material.
We can help the reefs by never killing snails for their shells nor buying such shells in shops. Jacks, called ulua in Hawaiian, are often seen on coral reefs. For these strong swimmers, the reef is a hunting ground. In contrast are butterflyfish, commonly seen on coral reefs. Some species spend their entire lives near a single clump of coral.