Unidentified Shrimp

[XcalakSteve]

Shot this guy yesterday in about 50 feet of water. Located in front of Xcalak Mexico near the Belize border. Any ideas?

Steve

 

[jaybombs25]

seen same shrimp several times and have very similar pics not quite sure though (St. Lucia)

 

[Scuba_Jenny]

Mantis Shrimp. AKA thumb splitter. Don't stick your finger in the hole!

 

[bvmjethead]

Not a mantis the claw is all wrong. At least from the pictures and diagrams I see.

 

[LeslieH]

It's a thalanassid shrimp, the same family that contains ghost and mud shrimp. Genus Corallianassa. It's been photographed a lot. This particular species is a hoarder. Some members of this genus dig extensive burrows. They capture sea grass & other vegetal detritus which they store in special chambers in the burrows. After allowing bacteria to partially break down the debris they eat it. You can lure them out of their burrows by holding a piece of seagrass over the opening.

 

[Rick Murchison]

It's a thalanassid shrimp, the same family that contains ghost and mud shrimp. Genus Corallianassa. It's been photographed a lot. This particular species is a hoarder. Some members of this genus dig extensive burrows. They capture sea grass & other vegetal detritus which they store in special chambers in the burrows. After allowing bacteria to partially break down the debris they eat it. You can lure them out of their burrows by holding a piece of seagrass over the opening.

Thanks Leslie... little rascal had me stumped!
Now I have to go find 'em
Rick

 

[XcalakSteve]

Thanks everyone! Any idea where I can get more info and pictures? Is there a common name for it? Tried Googling it and came back with nothing. Thanks!!
Steve

 

[LeslieH]

I'e seen about 20 images of this on the net but they're usually mis-identified so a google search won't find them. Do a search in the critter id forum at Wetpixel (Wetpixel.com :: Underwater Photography and Videography) - I've discussed it in at least one maybe two threads there.

Here's one of the sites that mentions the habit of gardening: Marine Biology Vienna - Staff of the Department The picture they have of Corallianassa longiventris nicely matches the markings on your guy. A scientific article on it with more pictures is http://www.nhm-wien.ac.at/NHM/3Zoo/Dworschak_et_al_homepage.pdf

 

[XcalakSteve]

Thanks Leslie! I appreciate the help.
Steve

 

[jaybombs25]

You wanted some more pics, was browsing through and found one (not very good one) taken in St. Lucia in about 20 ft of water on a sandy bottom at Saline Point. I've also seen a species of this with blue. was a few months ago and didn't have camera.