So, anyone care to ID these guys

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Puffer Fish

Captain Happy
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This has been a great month for shooting images of things one normally never gets to see, most of which have been identified by people far smarter than me... but these guys have me stumped.

Was shooting images of Lysmata rathbunae (well they seem to be, but as there are no photos of them, it is just a guess).. and in the side of the image was this:

thing 2011 09 11 01.jpg

Ok, they are around 1/16 to 1/32 of an inch....they obviously eat sponges...and they look like the guy dressed as the sun in the Jimmy Dean TV ads.
 
Puffer Fish,
Are you asking about the shimp or the zoanthid-like things on the surface of the sponge ?

This has been a great month for shooting images of things one normally never gets to see, most of which have been identified by people far smarter than me... but these guys have me stumped.

Was shooting images of Lysmata rathbunae (well they seem to be, but as there are no photos of them, it is just a guess).. and in the side of the image was this:

View attachment 103488

Ok, they are around 1/16 to 1/32 of an inch....they obviously eat sponges...and they look like the guy dressed as the sun in the Jimmy Dean TV ads.
 
Last edited:
Puffer Fish,
Are you asking about the shimp or the zoanthid-like things on the surface of the sponge ?

The shrimp I know. One has to have a good image of it's rostrum, and if short, then look for body detail. These shrimp happen to have a very delicate, long one, which excludes most of the species.

Here are better images of the shrimp:

peppermint shrimp 2011 08 14 12.jpgpeppermint shrimp 2011 09 11 02.jpgpeppermint shrimp 2011 09 11 10.jpg

Only rathbunae has a long, rather delicate rostrum (the long pointy thing coming out of top of their head). Sadly, there are no other live images to compare to. If the rostrum was short, then one has to look at differences in body markings.

I was asking about the Zoanthid-like things. Never seen anything remotely like them.
 
Halemano, to ID pepperment shrimp, you need really detailed images of them, and even then, one may only be able to get it down to a couple species. A long distance shot would be impossible to tell which one it was..
 
Regarding the little star like "things". They are obviously eating into the sponge. In the larger image, you can see some that are completely below the surface, and some that are just barely in it.

They appear to have a rigid body (at least the part one can see), and don't have a clue what is on the part stuck into the sponge. They are clearly not filter feeders, and the location was in a crevasse that limited light would get to.

Unlike a star fish, which would have a mouth at the center bottom, these guys seem to have one on the side...
 

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