Shrimp on soft coral in Bali

Hi,

Does anybody know the name of this specie? It lives on a soft coral in the swallow water.

Thanks

That's some good camouflage! Quite difficult to see what's going on there. Could it be a Hamodactylus noumeae? Looks similar to the one in "A Diver's Guide To Underwater Malaysia Macrolife".

Thanks Nick,

I do not think is that one. It does look different when you see it life. It is not transparent and quite chubby. But tiny and really hard to see.

Since i found this one, i have found three other colonies...

Hi Nick

I wrote to Leslie and she reply:

It's an obligate commensal which is identified in the Japanese crustacean books as either Hippolyte commensalis or Hippolyte species, undescribed.

Somebody posted some pics of it back in 01.2009. Happy to know what it is.

Thanks for your help

Thanks a lot!

Nice pictures.

Cheers

In the new Reef creature ID book, (DeLoach & Humann) they state it is from the Family Hippolytidae, and may represent a new genus.

Cheers,

Marli

I will check that book.

Thanks Marli!

it's a new hippolytid genus & species being described by Okuno & Marin

Art

Thanks for stopping by Art!

Julie and I just found a few of these shrimp here at the house reef of Misool Eco Resort.

One thing we noticed is that there was a distinct difference between the ones we've found in Wakatobi, and the ones we just found at Misool. Check out the difference..

Here is the wakatobi one from 2005:

Here's the one we just found in Misool last week. Notice it doesnt have the spiky protrusions that all the other posted ones have. And the tail is really pretty.

I guess a different species that just happens to live on a similar coral?

Definitely different species & species, maybe family too. It reminds me more of a Periclimenes than a Hippolyte commensalis. I'll have to ask the shrimp patrol.

Yup, that was our conclusion as well, but it's interesting we found it in the same type of coral, and it was also well camouflaged. (the photos dont show that). We kept finding it on the same coral for days, so it seems like thats home.

Heard back from Sammy De Grave, confirming both that the first is a new genus & species and that the second is different. He said the Misool shrimp is Hamodactylus noumeae. I hadn't seen that coloration before but found another one on flickr which is similar - http://www.flickr.com/photos/hungandpan/28...in/photostream/