At the MOTE with fish that I would cuddle if I could

The MOTE Marine Laboratory & Aquarium in Sarasota, Florida is a magical place.

Dwarf Cuttlefish! These are my absolute favorite fish! OK, they're not technically fish, they are mollusks. They look similar to squid, about 4 inches long with tentacles coming from their head. They can CHANGE COLOR and PATTERNS right before your eyes! When hiding in a dark space, they are often black with white polka dots. When they come out of hiding, they lighten to browns and tans and quickly trade the dots for stripes, circles or no pattern at all. When they swim to the white side of the tank, they turn, yep, white.

There's three in this photo, see them all? See the different colors and patterns?

This very interesting creature has the tail of a lobster and the head and arms of a praying mantis. We watched it roll into a ball like those ropy poly bugs. There were no signs explaining what this is, so when we left I googled it and found it's called a Mantis Shrimp.

We love being able to touch fun sea creatures!

Touching a squishy sea cucumber.

Following the manatees to the Oh Baby exhibit, where they explain reproduction of marine life.

These sea turtles were enormous! This one kept swimming over and popping his head up to look at Journey.

We arrived during manatee feeding time.

Playing in a TED (turtle extruder device). This allows fishermen to catch fish and shrimp, and when a turtle
 is caught, he will hit the gate towards the end and get pushed out instead of caught in the final section of net.

Garden Eels are brightly colored, interesting creatures that bury themselves tail first in the sand. 

We watched them stretch upwards to eat, but never saw one come completely out of the sand.

The life cycle and stages of a jelly fish. Super cool seeing microscopic jellyfish swimming around!

Touching a baby Epaulette Shark.

Do you know what these are? 

Teeny, tiny baby seahorses! 

Those circles are about the size of a dime for reference.

We loved the MOTE and plan to return next week!