FOCUS ON SHRIMPS; Ocean critters in the Philippines.

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(Edited)

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Hello all you #hivers out there, today in the spotlight are shrimps, worldwide there are hundreds of different varieties but as always my photos come from my diving in the Philippines. All of the shots today come from my home of Moalboal which is a small town in the south of Cebu in the Visaya's region.

Shrimps come in many shapes and sizes and at times can be quite challenging to photograph. Some are very small and many are translucent with only their skeleton's visible, here are a few of my favorites to capture.

Lets start with the daddy of them all the Peacock Mantis shrimp, this amazing creature has pound for pound one of the most powerful claws on the planet which it uses in a thumping fashion to smash it's way into it's prey. Add to this the most complex eyes in the animal kingdom and you have a unique beast.

Measuring in at about 8 inches fully grown and having a stunning multi-coloured body it truly is a sight to behold. This thing has a other world look about it and reminds me of the H. R. Giger creatures from the movie Aliens.

Peacock mantis shrimp.

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The feather like tail gives it's name.

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Next up we have the Squat shrimp, aka the sexy shrimp, a pretty looking critter that generally is found in anemone's. As with many shrimps this is where they make their home, paying rent by cleaning up food waste left behind by the anemone.

House keeping shrimp.

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This little guy is another anemone dweller it is from the commensal family of shrimp which covers a huge range of shrimp which differ very much from each other. Many are quite small this one is about 1/2 inch long and as you can see mostly translucent so very difficult to capture a quality picture.

Periclimenes Anemone shrimp.

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Same shrimp different anemone.

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This chap is also a commensal, choosing to live in flat plate like anemone's it is easier to find and averaging about 1 inch long somewhat less challenging to capture a nice shot. Also having a clear outer shell you can see all of it's insides which is quite interesting. A splendid looking little creature it deserves it's common name of......

The Magnificent shrimp.

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Whip corals are a long thin stick like coral that can grow to many meters long, no thicker than a pencil the are home to many specialist fish such as gobbies and also many form of shrimp. As with the anemone the host allows "lodgers" to live on it, this symbiotic relationship benefits both parties. Here are a couple of what are grouped as whip coral shrimp, they are only 5mm long.

Anker's whip shrimp aka barred wire coral shrimp.

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A different variety.

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With so many shrimp I could go on all day and I think the best thing would be to do another focus on shrimps in the future. For today i'm going to finish off with a near invisible variety. The bubble coral shrimp lives deep within the soft balls of the coral only venturing out to feed. The dark spots on the coral are a flatworm parasite, I have tried to find if the shrimp feed on these but as is so often with sea life we just don't know that much about many species.

Bubble coral shrimp.

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Thanks for stopping by to check out my post, hope you enjoyed it and look forward to next time I focus on a species. Until then stay safe folks.

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Wow, so many different ones. Never been to so warm countries so it's nice to see your photos.

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There are many types but these are a few of my favorites, i'll definitely do another post on shrimps, too many for one post.

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Oh, there are so many of them, and I couldn't expect of them to be so beautiful!

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