Questions about 'lil critters

[DrySuitDave]

Gang,

I used to be an avid reef tank hobbysist, and I really enjoyed stocking my tank with just about every type of small shrimp I could find, including standard cleaner shrimp, the small Pedersons cleaner shrimp, the always amusing pistol shrimp with their popping antics and symbiotic relationship with goby's and the shrimp that are symbiotic to starfish and sea urchins.

They were just really relaxing to watch them go about putzing around and keeping house.

I have been diving a couple of times in Fiji, and Mexico, but haven't done the Caribbean. My question is, how often do you guys see different types of cleanerand other symbiotic shrimp when diving or are they really reclusive?

 

[DocVikingo]

Hi DrySuitDave,

I've dived quite a lot of the greater Caribbean, and it's been my experience that if you have keen eyesight, know where to look & are a bit patient, a variety of small shrimp are quite easy to locate.

Happy hunting.

DocVikingo

 

[donacheson]

Originally posted by DrySuitDave
Gang,

I have been diving a couple of times in Fiji, and Mexico, but haven't done the Caribbean. My question is, how often do you guys see different types of cleanerand other symbiotic shrimp when diving or are they really reclusive?

Regularly. Pederson shrimp are often seen around corkscrew anemone with a pistol shrimp or two on the sand under the anemone. Banded coral shrimp are also quite common. Others are sometimes found in anemones. Humann pictures about a dozen.

 

[DrySuitDave]

That is so cool you see them now and then. On the west coast in soCal it is difficult to stop and take a long look at anything small due to surge.

Once off San Nicholas island though I did come up with a banded pipefish about 6" long. I showed it to everyone on the dive boat before repatriating it.

 

[Dee]

Originally posted by DrySuitDave
That is so cool you see them now and then. On the west coast in soCal it is difficult to stop and take a long look at anything small due to surge.

Once off San Nicholas island though I did come up with a banded pipefish about 6" long. I showed it to everyone on the dive boat before repatriating it.

You caught and brought a pipefish on board the dive boat just to show it to everyone! :nono: Please tell me I am mis-understanding your statement!

Handling creatures causes them great distress which can lead to their death. These small creatures are very delicate! Pipefish, like their seahorse cousins, are territorial. By removing it from it's home range where everything is familiar to it, it now has to re-establish itself on the reef competing for food and shelter...if it doesn't die from the shock of being handled and the pressure change of being taken to the surface.

;-0