Crabs, Lobsters, and Shrimp. I recently posted a Nudibranchs thread here, animals both beautiful and weird, but Crustaceans take it up another notch with both shape variations and behaviors.
And Komodo had hundreds of different animals to choose from. Here are a selection
First, my favorite couple of shots of the group, a Harlequin Swimming Crab minding his own business until someone gets nosy
Then, the decorators. Decorator crabs grab stuff and attach it to their backs for decoration and camouflage, and some of them use live animals for this purpose. These guys all had living anemones attached to them.
And now, the weird. First is the Skeleton Shrimp. These tiny shrimp live in colonies on feathery hydroids, and wave, duck, dance, and fight with each other as a full time job. Since they have a vaguely human like appearance, they are even more entertaining to watch. I've seen many pics of these guys but never have seen the red eyes before.
These next two are probably the weirdest, the first is called a Donald Duck Shrimp. No kidding. Google it.
The second shot is a Xenocrab.
Here are three little creeps from the black sand muck dives of Komodo. The first is a Scissor Swimming Crab, the second one remains unidentified and the third is a mantas shrimp, otherwise known as a "thumb splitter" because it hunts by lightning-quick strikes from powerful claws.
The rest of these I put into the general category of "beautiful". Most people don't think of crustaceans as anything but ugly, but you can see, some of them are stunning.
First are Coleman Shrimp, who live entirely on top of Fire Urchins.
Unidentified
A Soft Coral Crab gleefully feeding on bloodworms attracted by my dive lights. It's not easy being a bloodworm.
Crinoid Squat Lobster
This is an Emperor Shrimp, residing on the back of a much larger Nudibranch. You can see the Nudibranch gills in the shot.
Hairy Squat Lobster
A Blue Spiney Lobster
Check out the eyes on the Red Night Shrimp
A favorite from the trip, a Tiger Shrimp.
Brooks Urchin Shrimp
And last, a Whip Coral Shrimp. I love the black and white camouflage
And Komodo had hundreds of different animals to choose from. Here are a selection
First, my favorite couple of shots of the group, a Harlequin Swimming Crab minding his own business until someone gets nosy
Then, the decorators. Decorator crabs grab stuff and attach it to their backs for decoration and camouflage, and some of them use live animals for this purpose. These guys all had living anemones attached to them.
And now, the weird. First is the Skeleton Shrimp. These tiny shrimp live in colonies on feathery hydroids, and wave, duck, dance, and fight with each other as a full time job. Since they have a vaguely human like appearance, they are even more entertaining to watch. I've seen many pics of these guys but never have seen the red eyes before.
These next two are probably the weirdest, the first is called a Donald Duck Shrimp. No kidding. Google it.
The second shot is a Xenocrab.
Here are three little creeps from the black sand muck dives of Komodo. The first is a Scissor Swimming Crab, the second one remains unidentified and the third is a mantas shrimp, otherwise known as a "thumb splitter" because it hunts by lightning-quick strikes from powerful claws.
The rest of these I put into the general category of "beautiful". Most people don't think of crustaceans as anything but ugly, but you can see, some of them are stunning.
First are Coleman Shrimp, who live entirely on top of Fire Urchins.
Unidentified
A Soft Coral Crab gleefully feeding on bloodworms attracted by my dive lights. It's not easy being a bloodworm.
Crinoid Squat Lobster
This is an Emperor Shrimp, residing on the back of a much larger Nudibranch. You can see the Nudibranch gills in the shot.
Hairy Squat Lobster
A Blue Spiney Lobster
Check out the eyes on the Red Night Shrimp
A favorite from the trip, a Tiger Shrimp.
Brooks Urchin Shrimp
And last, a Whip Coral Shrimp. I love the black and white camouflage
