Which critter decorates the entrance to his home with shells?

[drbill]

Mantis shrimp would be my guess too

 

[lagomorpheus]

After reviewing my photos of various jawfish and also looking online, I agree that the structure of the hole is identical to that of the jawfish. I maintain that this is a particularly OCD or fashion conscious individual

Re: organization, one of my first impulses was to want to stick a GoPro in the sand, rearrange the shells and see what angry critter came up to investigate and "fix" the decoration disaster

 

[farsidefan1]

Had I been there we could know for certain. Just wait for the answer. Move back and be patient. Evil doers would move a pebble. But if you give the critter space I suspect you would know the answer before you ran out of air.

 

[Steve_C]

How big was the hole?

 

[lagomorpheus]

The hole was about 1-1.5 cm in diameter, not more than 20m deep I suspect.

farsidefan, I suspect you're right, but this was in Lembeh where you have 4 species you've never seen before at any given time, "empty" holes tend to lose their charm with dive guides and buddies pretty quickly