Saw this little guy on a night dive under the Pier on St. Croix in roughly 10-20 ft of water. Unfortunately, this is my only photo of him. As soon as I flashed the pic, he scurried out of reach.
When I took the photo, I thought it was a hermit crab peaking out from underneath. But when he went to scurry away, I realized he has an eye on the other side, matching the one visible.
His is about little fingernail size.
we saw quite a few decorator crabs...wondering if this is another variation of one.
Seems to be a decorator crab of some kind.
Dave,
I photographed these frequently this past winter in Grand Cayman, and have referred to them as a Spongy Decorator Crab, Marcocoeloma trispinosum as found on page 229 of the Humann/Deloach Reef Creature Indentification book, 2nd edition.
Buddies nad myself discovered a particular gray sponge in the shallows that had upwards of 6 or more at any given time on it.They seemed to be as active during the day as at night.
