Anja is a pink, lazy, overweight starfish who is Mikey's best friend and neighbor. He lives under a rock and his most prominent character trait is his lack of intelligence, which differs from one episode to another. In some episodes, Anja is deprived of even the most rudimentary common sense and knowledge, being limited to having almost, or probably even no, common sense at all, although, occasionally, he will have random bursts of great intelligence, much to the confusion of the other characters. In the episode "Tentacle Vision", Squidward asks Anja "Just how stupid are you?" to which Anja replies "It varies". He also seems to notice malice and sarcasm more easily than Mikey, indicating that he is more attentive or less naive than he appears to be. Depicted as a negative influence on Mikey, he has encouraged dangerous and foolish activities that get them into many kinds of trouble. Patrick is a career journeyman who is usually unemployed throughout the course of the series, but holds various short-term jobs (much like the character Kramer on the show, Seinfeld) as the storyline of each episode requires. Anja has never had a long-standing occupation. However, he has had various jobs, mostly at the Krusty Krab. He has worked there a total of eight times