For the past week I’ve taken one of our guides, Johan, for some diving. He’s usually famous for being the “Goby Hunter”. Although considering how many different species of shrimps and crabs we both found together, he deserves an additional name!
Let’s start with the Hairy Shrimps, or Algae Shrimp (Phycocaris simulans). Once you’ve seen this little bit of “fluff” you will know where it’s gotten the name from. Resembling floating bits of algae, this type of shrimp often moves just above the bottom.
One of my favorite crustaceans is the Cryptic Sponge Shrimp. And again, it has gotten its name for a reason: The color and body shape of the shrimp perfectly matches the sponge they are usually living on. Usually, they look quite unspectacular in the photos, so I tried to highlight this subject with some Bubble Bokeh background.
Quite common but also very photogenic are the Soft Coral Candy or Porcelain Crabs. I’ve only grouped them together because they live in the same habitat. Colors can highly vary between pink and yellow, depending on the soft corals they inhabit.
A relative of the Soft Coral Crab is the Depressed Spider Crab. I actually happened to see this crab for the first time when diving with Johan. Beautiful crab living in Gorgonian Fans, perfectly camouflaged thanks to its lumps on the carapace.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but this is probably an undescribed species of Broken-Back Shrimp. Our guides also call it an Algae Shrimp since it’s also covered in debris blending in with surrounding algae etc. Up to 6mm in size and usually found on sandy bottoms.
Next up, the Skeleton Shrimps (although they shouldn’t really be in this category since they’re not true shrimp). Usually very active and fun to watch because they seem to be fighting constantly, Skeleton Shrimp are actually amphipods. This individual was surprisingly big, around 3cm in size.
All pictures taken with Panasonic GH4 in Nauticam housing, using either the Olympus 12-50mm or 60mm macro lens with Subsee +10 or CMC-1 and sometimes DIY snoot.
