Shrimp gobies and their goby shrimp are quite common in Lembeh, and hundreds of variations can be found throughout Indonesia. If you take the time to slowly creep up on them they are fascinating to watch. The gobies act as a lookout, warning the shrimp of any danger with twitches of its tail, while the blind goby shrimp goes about excavating the hole. I sat with these Black Shrimp Gobies today for about 15-20 minutes, while two Alpheus sp. goby shrimp worked on the burrow. The one pictured here seemed to be the engineer of the two. After it would bring out a load of sand, it would survey the surrounding perimeter for 5-10 seconds, while the other continued to dig. Great photo opportunities if you care to spend a little extra time.
