Everytime I see a sea cucumber I swim over to it and closely inspect it. I’m aware that some sea cucumbers can have commensal shrimp living on them, but to date I haven’t located any. I’ll keep searching, however. For now, I think the variety of cucumbers you can find in the area is impressive. I’ll have to work on collecting a photo of each species I find in the area. This one is Holothuria mexicana, or the Donkey Dung Cucumber. I swear I’m not making that up. And I try to forget it’s name while I’m closely inspecting it for shrimp.

OK, I promised better photos of the Squat Anemone Shrimp, and I think I have one that is better. Still, not great. I did, however, find a pocket of these on a particular reef. I didn’t have my camera on me at the time, but you know I’ll be going back with my camera

Besides the shrimp, I did manage to find a couple Banded Clinging Crabs. They are tiny, usually less than 2 inches across, and they like to hide deep underneath anemones. Here is a series of photos on these guys. First, how I first happened upon him.

It is tucked underneath the anemone (a Sun Anemone, Stichodactyla helianthus) in the center of the image. At this point you move very catiously, slowly, and controlled. Exhales are controlled and very slow as well (a sharp exhale is almost certain to scare off animals). Any quick movement sends this little guy into hiding.

From the front side, after circling around,again center of photo tucked underneath the anemone. A closer view of the same pic, now clearly visable –

I came across a second one later in the dive. This one cooperated a bit more for me.

But he eventually tucked away. I found a nearby mango leave and played a little game of tug-of-war trying to bring him out of hding. Getting a quality photo of this was nearly impossible. Nevertheless, here is the best I managed –

While checking out this particular crab I stumbled across a sweet little shrimp. These Sun anemones can be a gold mine! Check out this little shrimp –

Can you see it? Just off-center to the right tucked underneath the anemone’s polyps. Here, a closer pic of it -

That little dude is less than 1 inch long. Really pleased with the photo given my equipment. I *think* this is Periclimenes yucatanicus, the Spotted Anemone Shrimp, but I cannot be 100% positive on that. I’m going to head back and see if I can find more of them there and get better images. For now, this is actually a really good image. Be sure to check it out at full-size to see the shrimp the best.

A brief interruption of macro images…

One of the main reef-building corals of the Caribbean, a Mountainous Star coral, Montastraea faveolata, growing in plating form. Looking underneath those plates with a flashlight often pays off in dividends. This one rises about 10-12 feet.

Baby squid! Love finding these guys. Adults can get 6 inches or more, but this guy is about 1/2 an inch. At this size when they get scared they ink and leave the smallest dot of black ink – you can’t help but laugh when you see it happen. Don’t be afraid to open that image to full size – it’s worth it.

A couple more photos worth sharing today. It was a good dive obviously, lasting to 88 minutes. Nutty to think if I ever do the sidemount I could be looking at bottom times nearing 3 hours. Wow. Okay, back on track…

I seem to find Wire Coral Shrimp almost with ease nowadays, but that shouldn’t take away from how few divers actually ever see one. Very few of my clients have ever seen one, so it’s fun to find them and show it off. This first photo shows the shrimp on roughly 2 inches of coral, so that should give reference to the size of the shrimp.

And a little closer view here. We are looking at an animal smaller than a grain of rice –

A few weeks back I featured the Goatfish getting cleaned by a juvenile angelfish. Today I managed to snap a picture of a Creole Wrasse, Clepticus parrae, in full “clean me” mode.

It is important to note that Creole Wrasse (like many wrasses) have many color phases, likely worthy of their very own blog someday when I stumble across a large school with my camera. For the record, this one in particular is what is termed the “initial phase.” It is, if we could relate it to human years, a teenager. Notice the scales flared in preparation of getting cleaned. For the record, th cleaner fish on record here is the juvenile color form of the Bluehead Wrasse. Again, another wrasse worthy of it’s own blog someday.

I came across an injured Yellowhead Wrasse, Halichoeres garnoti (in the adult “terminal” phase) hiding in a gorgonian coral.

I’m not sure what would have taken a swipe at this fish, but it obviously was a very near miss.

Looks like this fish got rather lucky.

Filed Under: Honduras, Scuba, Squat Anomene Shrimp, Travel, Underwater Photography, Utila