5 replies to this topic

[acroporas]

I fond a couple critters in Bonaire that I dont know what are.

First, the mystery white morey @ 20ft.



Blenny in sponge @ 120ft





Goby??


Anemone??


Crab living in very close proximity to anemone @ 130ft




Hermit crab @ 30ft @ night - These dudes are the strangest things ever. Instead of the normal hermit crab responce to dive in it's shell when approched these guys take off running, and fast. More than 1 inch per second. And when you pick them up if you dont hold on tight they will quickly escape your grasp and swim away, yep thats right they swim as they fall toward the ground.

[scubamarli]

Hi there,
Weird critters are what keep diving so much fun. I think the moray is a very pale Purplemouth moray. You don't say how big it was, so if it was a juvenile, this might make sense. The golden eyes are a clue.
The anemone is a club-tipped anemone: Telmatactis americana.
The crab looks more like a decorator than a hermit, but no clue. The hermit looks again like a juvenile; the purple legs are unusual, though.
The blenny in the sponge is tough because of the lighting.
The juvenile is one I'm trying to figure out too...just saw several in Belize.
Cheers,
Marli

[scubamarli]

Oops, forgot to say that the juvenile could be a triplefin.
Marli

[acroporas]

The morey was smallish - about 4 cm diameter. Although all i could see was his head, I would guess he was 2 ft long baised on his diameter.

[acroporas]

No one else has any ideas?

[Leslie]

I don't think the hermit is a juvenile. Steve Dunbar, a hermit crab specialist, told me that true juveniles lack eye stalks. The overall pigmentation pattern is like that of the red-lined hermit (Phimochirus holthuisi) but the specific colors are different: purplish-blue instead of red stripes and the eyes are reddish instead of blue. I wonder if it's a color variant? Maybe the Caribbean or Gulf folks would know. Your anemone crab might be undescribed. Hard bottom substrates from 130 feet aren't sampled very often by biologists... if they are, it's usually by accident!
Leslie