shrimpy pair

[alcina]

When I descended the other day I saw long, thin bright white feelers sticking out from under a ledge. When I checked it out - upside down, neck twisted at odd angle - there were two cleaner shrimp, one with eggs.

There was no way to get me, my camera and my strobe under there so I popped the strobe off the arm (benefit of locline arm) and stuck the camera and strobe up under there. Tried to visualise where the little guys were and clicked away! Surprisingly most of the shots turned out OK.

This is my favourite:

Enjoy...

 

[archman]

Oh wow, these are my favorite kinds of pictures.

A mated pair of Stenopus; they don't tolerate one another otherwise. And there are slight colour differences between these and the ones we get in the Caribbean. You wouldn't know the species name for these Pacific types would you?

Man, these are good zoology pics.

 

[f3nikon]

Good shooting! Mark this site as a cleaning station(maybe)?. Did you have the camera at the normal horizontal shooting postion? Because turning the camera 180 degrees (upside down) may have helped the strobe light from hitting the leading top pink coral/sponge ledge.

Cheers

 

[Dee]

Dont'cha just hate it when they do that? I agree about the loc-line arms, another reason I like them, too.

Great shooting form the hip!

 

[alcina]

arch - Stenopus hispidus

f3 - normally I would review and move the lighting (external Inon 200) but there was no room on this site!

 

[f3nikon]

Good shooting anyway... Thanks fo bringing some warm colors into our cold cold winter up north brrrrrr.

 

[SeaYoda]

Very cool - I love the colors.

 

[archman]

arch - Stenopus hispidus

You're right! I forget how much colour variability is in this species, but the ones I keep in my "Caribbean aquarium" are from the Pacific too.

Never seen any with root-beer coloured legs, though. Are all the ones in your specific area like that alcina?

 

[Gilligan]

Great shots.

 

[alcina]

Never seen any with root-beer coloured legs, though. Are all the ones in your specific area like that alcina?

OK, I've quickly been through some of my other images of these guys and the answer is...no. I think.

Some seem to have completely white legs, some seem to have the root beer coloured legs but quite faint and others seem to have like these two with the very distinct legs.

Now that you have brought it up I will try to photo most of the ones I come across just to check. Saw an absolutely massive one today, but she was on the top of a hole that had the weirdest creature popping in and out - I wasn't game to get close so only have crappy zoomed, not-so-well lit shots of her. She was full of eggs, too. Never seen one that big before...