Sashimi Shrimps

These c. 8mm long shrimps belong to the Broken Back shrimps. Although described in 1982, they have been liitle reported on except on Romblon in the Phillippines. Apart from being small, they appear to be night active, living amongst marine macro algae on reefs, hence seldom seen. They are most easily found with UV light as they fluoresce fairly brighly. They must be one of the most variable shrimps when it comes to colour. Within a few meters, you can see white-red, white-green, white-brown, green-pink bicolour forms, pure red, pure pink, and pure cream variations.
It is probable that they only occur in numbers where Julinidine wrasses are absent.










Hairy Shrimp

Hairy shrimp is really a collection of very small broken-back shrimp species. How small? Look at the first image. The pointer on the left is 5mm in diameter!
They can be found on sea grass beds, in tufts of red algae, or between macro-algae amongst coral. Females with eggs as seen most often as they are bulkier and slower that the tiny males. The size difference can be clearly seen in one of the images.
They move continuously, swaying from side to side, see-sawing their body on their front pairs of legs and pirouetting. They rarely stay in one position for long, often suddenly swimming to a new location.













Ladybugs & Other Small "Shrimps"

The Cyproideidae (Ladybugs) are very small amphipod crustaceans. Their often bright colours make them favorite subjects for super-macro photographers. One species Amaryllis philatelica is so spectactular that it featured on an Australian stamp in the 1980's. They live in small groups or pairs on sponges, bryozoans, ascideans or small, long-stemmed anenomes.
Idiomysis are the space monsters of the reef although under 2mm long! With their huge "bug eyes" and wierd body shape they buzz around in groups just above the sand or in sheltered hollows on the side of bommies. They seem never to stop moving back and forward, up and down, left and right. A photographers challenge! They are closely related to mysid shrimps.




