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 ABOUTfeatured: 30 Best Snorkeling Blogs Fun Ways to enjoy the caribbeanArchive for the ‘Crabs + Shrimp + Lobsters’Apr 13, 11 Comments Off
Hey friends, here is something cool tonight. Yesterday when the sub was down searching the depths of the ocean for new and unusual things they spotted this beautiful, never seen before shell resting on a ledge at 500 plus feet. They assumed the shell was empty or at least from where they were sitting it looked empty and proceeded to carefully pick it up with a powerful but gentle vacuum and then gently set it inside a crate with foam. Upon arriving back to Earth and getting to view this shell up close and personal we immediately found out that it already has an owner, a tiny, cute, blue eyed little hermit crab. Talk about wearing shoes that don’t fit, this little guy can hardly even walk around in this thing, it’s way to big for him!! So what I did today was take him back out on the reef and first photographed him as you see here, then I took him back to 15 feet of water and made him a special home for the night. Right now he is in a plastic container filled with sand, mossy rocks, (so he can eat) and half a dozen smaller shells that I hope he moves into tonight, then I can give Dutch his prized shell back and take our little guy back out to his home and set him free. As soon as I find out a name for the shell and the crab I will update this blog on the site so stay tuned for more, the saga continues!
Curacao was overcast, windy and absolutely beautiful today! It looked like rain all day but NOTHING! At 5:00 I went for a super fun mountain bike ride with my 13 year old speed freak, he gets faster every time I ride with him, my boys in Rapid would be really impressed! Aimee was off, she did another 2-3 hour walk with the dogs to a local dog beach and as I was told everyone had a great time, even Inca who is hard to please!
Drop a line when you can, Barry
Apr 12, 11 Comments Off
Good evening friends, here is a face only a mother could love, I personally think it would make a great Halloween mask! Well trust me when I say, these Batwing Coral crabs, Carpilius corallinus are beautiful and always a joy to find out on the reef, usually at night. These crabs are classified as “True Crabs” with their smooth carapace in shades of orange, red or brown with white and yellow spots and markings. The legs are red with purple shading and the top of the shell has the outline of a bat with it’s wings open, thus the name. Although now that I said that, I have also heard these called, Coral Crabs, Red Coral Crabs and the Queen Crab, that last one must have been named by the Dutch who’s countries color is orange. In all the years I have been here I have never seen a baby one of these only the full grown adults which are around 4-6 inches wide measured by the width of just the carapace. I also normally never see these creatures any deeper than 50 feet and quite often I have seen them in just a meter of water getting in or out from a dive hiding under rocks. Crabs as you may or may not know have greatly reduced abdomens and tails, which are kept curled under their large, rounded, and often flattened carapace. Their first pair of legs have developed claws that are used for protection and for the manipulation of objects. If disturbed, these claws are raised toward the danger in a threatening manor. Using the remaining four pairs of legs, crabs can move rapidly in a sideways direction. Many species are quite small and secretive, and therefore very difficult to find.
Aimee and I had a very busy day, I did one deep dive with Jonny and spent the rest of the day photographing dolphins. It was overcast all day and we didn’t get any moisture, what a drag, please let it rain tonight!!
Be well, thanks for all the kind comments and posts, Barry
Feb 5, 11 Comments Off
Good morning friends, I am a zombie this morning after a busy day followed by a night dive. My friend Stijn met me at the house at 7:00 last night and after racing around and grabbing last minute things we loaded the car and took off to the Aquarium. Everything went really smooth last night which as many of you divers know is not always the case, I normally forget something. We got our gear on and one by one jumped into the cold dark ocean and by 7:40 we were on our way. Lucky for us we had a fairly calm ocean last night to play in and the visibility was great, this was turning out to be a great dive and we had just started although I must say the sea was very cold last night, burrrrr! This is great news for the corals that have just gone thru the worst months in recorded history but last night they looked really great! My weapon of choice last night was the 105 macro lens, I love looking for small stuff and last night it was everywhere! I must honestly say, I am out of practice for night diving, it’s been way too long! I told myself last night during my one hour conversation with myself that we are going to start as of tonight doing one night dive a week again, this is just too much fun to not be doing! Stijn turned out to be a great dive buddy and this was his first night dive! He stuck to me like glue so at least I didn’t have to wonder where he was while I was shooting. I can still remember how scary our first night dive was, Aimee and I held onto one another like frightened children and hardly moved from where we got in the water, now I feel so comfortable out there, it’s so quiet and peaceful. We saw so much stuff last night and for some reason these Red Night Shrimps were everywhere! These are common shrimps and I normally see them when we get in and out of the water but last night we saw them deep on the reef and out walking on everything, it was really cool. These are one of those shy creatures that usually you have to get the shot the first time because once the flash fires they are gone! I wished I had my wide angle lens last night because I found a gorgonian with 6-9 sleeping trumpetfish all around it and in all different colors, that’s something you never see during the day. We also came across this really beautiful orange crinoid attached to an endangered Elkhorn coral, I will be back to shoot that in the next few days as he will most likely still be there. We ended up swimming a long ways last night and still exiting with plenty of air and other than shaking from the cold it was a great time!
After washing gear I ended up not getting to bed till late, ok late for me, 10:00, I am tired. I have to get moving, still need to walk the dogs and get ready for another dive at 10:30 this morning with friends. See you tonight, Barry
Feb 2, 11 Comments Off
Good evening readers, look hard and close and you will see the eyes and antennae of a hiding, waiting to kill Reef Mantis shrimp or Lysiosquilla glabriuscula. These shrimps are fearsome predators and can be very aggressive if molested! Their claws can inflict deep painful gashes and are commonly know as “thumb-splitters” by anyone stupid enough to put their finger in front of them. The photo here shows our predator buried under the sand with only his big eyes showing and his large antennae laying on the sand. Those antennae act as a trip wire of sorts, if anything passes in front of him, in the blink of an eye they will be his next meal. These animals are also the hands down masters of building homes or burrowing under ground. They usually spent the day building these very elaborate homes under the sand in a spectacular tube which is coated in mucus so it won’t cave in and then they wait at the top as you see here for dinner to come to them. These animals are fairly common in our area, I see them quite often and usually once they make a home they will live there for a long time. I can remember one Mantis shrimp that lived in the same exact spot at Small Wall for years, after Omar passed we lost him.
Not much to report from Curacao today, all is well and the sun is shining! Aimee was off today and ran all over doing all kinds of errands including dropping my bike off at Dasia for a new chain and new brake pads! We are missing Bernard and Rosa, I received word today that they are safe and sound back home, we wish they were still here.
I hope all is well out there, haven’t heard from many of you in what seems like forever, if this sounds like you, send us a note! Take care, Barry
Dec 23, 10 Comments (2)
Good morning readers, how is everyone today? Hard to believe it’s just a few days away from Christmas? I trust you all have your shopping done and if you haven’t I have a last minute gift suggestion. For you ladies looking for a gift for that special man, get him any cordless power tool preferably one that starts with Dewalt or Makita! And it doesn’t matter if he already has one or even two, guys love to collect these things and the more we own the better! That’s not a joke I am serious! And guys, there is only one place you need to go, Victoria Secrets! If you don’t have one in your area go on line, it’s what I call one stop shopping, you can’t go wrong but make sure to order the right sizes!
I have a little Blue Hermit Crab for you all this morning and was hoping you guys could help me find his real name. This is a very common crab in our waters and they live in just inches of water occupying any and all little shells below the surface. I always tell folks, “check your shells before you bring them home” they probably have a crab in them. These little things will tuck their bodies way back inside the shell if you pick one up making it very hard to see him so set them all down and see which of your shells starts moving and then toss them back into the sea. We have a Reef Creature book here but this crab is not identified inside so any help would be great. If I am not mistaken this is our friend Emily holding this little cutie, we had found many in a calm pool of water over at Saint Joris when she was last here.
I need to get ready for work, thanks for all the comments on the Isla photo from yesterday and NO that is not Photoshoped in any way!
Have a wonderful day, Barry
Dec 17, 10 Comments (2)
Good evening friends, I have to get up real early in the morning to walk the dogs and then get to work so I am getting this out now. Here is a beautiful little Red Reef Hermit Crab (Paguristes cadenati), sometimes called the Scarlet Reef Hermit Crab or Red Legged Hermit Crab that I found the other day while waiting for the folks from the Smithsonian to find and collect their specimens. These are very common and so much fun to watch underwater and are one of my favorite creatures to photograph. These little guys are found along the reef faces and coral rubble of the Caribbean and Western Atlantic. It scavenges animal matter and algae, but will only grow to one and a half inches in length., despite their large appetites and constant feeding habits. What I find unique are the shells they carry around, they are completely covered in different colors of Coralline Algae. Coralline Algae are in fact Red Algae in the order Corallinales. They are characterized by a thallus that is hard because of calcareous deposits contained within the cell walls. The colors of these algae are most typically pink, or some other shade of red, but some species can be purple, yellow, blue, white or gray-green. Coralline algae play an important role in the ecology of coral reefs. Sea Urchins, parrot fish, limpets (mollusks) and chitons (mollusks) feed on coralline algae. There are over 1600 described species of nongeniculate coralline algae. I had another pretty fast paced day. On our 11:00 sub dive we had a handicapped gentleman show up wanting to go for a ride but was very wheelchair bound. No problems say we, the Substation folks, we can get him in and there and we did! We hooked him up to a climbing harness started up the crane and ever so gently lifted him up, over the water and down into the small hatch, it wasn’t difficult at all. Because of his disability he did have to sit in the back but this worked out perfect for him. I had a hard time taking his photo underwater trying to shoot thru that little side window but after 30 pictures I finally got it! So really folks, if this guy can get in there you all have no excuse!
Better get ready for bed, see you all tomorrow, bye now, Barry
Oct 1, 10 Comments Off
Good morning friends, rise and shine it’s Friday! Yesterday was a pretty busy day again for me with the sub and Aimee had the day off. Aimee did however get to go on a brief sub ride with us in the morning but due to super strong current the morning was kind of messed up. Our plan again was to start introducing the dolphins to the sub except this time out side on the reef but the dumb current put an end to that plan! Last night Discovery Channel flew in and they will be here filming all day with us and we will again try the dolphin/sub dive first thing this morning for them. My new fins I brought back really seem to be working well for these current dives, it’s really just what I needed.
Here is a tiny Southern Teardrop Crab for you all today, Aimee and I found him on our last night dive together. These are a type of Decorator Crabs because of the attachment of living sponge to their carapace and legs. These are fairly common in our area and we see many on any given night dive and of course I always stop for a photo they are just too cool to pass up. This guy here is more than likely eating the Star Coral “Poop” that is pushed out from the polyps, I have observed it many times.
That’s it sorry so short, will be a busy day with the Discovery guys. See you later, Barry
Sep 29, 10 Comments Off
Hey guys, tonight we have a very tiny Hermit Crab for your viewing pleasure. I found this youngster on the trail the other night and for once I was carrying the right lens! What’s unique about this other than it’s a cute little baby Hermit Crab is that he is using an empty Cerion Shell or as they are called here “Infant-in-Arms Shells”. Cerion is a genus of small to medium-sized tropical air-breathing land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastopods in the family Cerionidae, sometimes known as the peanut snails. This is a highly diverse genus, with more than 600 described species. The genus is endemic to the Caribbean region. The name Cerion is based on the Greek word Kerion, signifying honeycomb, and is given to these shells because the form of the shell resembles that of a Beehive; hence they were at once time known as Beehive Shells. The locals say it’s form/shape resembles or looks like a small baby wrapped in cloth, I think I will go with the Beehive Shell name myself, I am not seeing the baby? These shells liter the island and in some spots it looks like snow on the ground because of the large quantities of dead ones. Obviously they make perfect “starter homes” for baby crabs of all kinds and the shells are very tough! This shell here is less than half an inch in length, cool huh?
Aimee had the day off and I worked. She got the ball rolling on getting the car fixed and I did three dives with the sub, all of them different and unique. So that’s about it for tonight, all is good!
Be back tomorrow, Barry
Sep 23, 10 Comments Off
Hi guys, I am back!! As of this minute I have gone for 37 hours without sleeping, a new record! My flight back was again just plain crazy! I said good-bye to Nancy at the Rapid City airport at around 8:30 Wednesday morning and then proceeded to go thru this insane maze of security! You know the routine, shoes and sweater off, watches, coins, belts, phones, keys and everything in your pockets has to be emptied out and don’t forget to set your laptop in a separate tub all by itself, what a hassle! Then you walk thru the “Tunnel of Doom” holding your breath and praying that you make it thru without being “strip-searched” although I have heard some are going thru just for that treatment which I still think is free! I was carrying all my underwater equipment in my carry-on and you can just guess how that went over? The second that bag went thru red lights went on and everything stopped! Who’s bag is this I heard from behind the counter. I wanted to point to the guy next to me but he had enough problems of his own. So like a child who thinks he’s in trouble I spoke up and said mine. What is all this stuff they asked and for the next 10 minutes I explained while they unloaded everything out of my carefully packed bag and put it all into separate tubs and ran it thru again just to be sure it was safe. Just for the record it is way harder to get thru security in Rapid City than any place in Miami or Chicago! I had a nice flight to Chicago but the second I got off and walked into the Chicago terminal it was like waking up on the streets of New York City at rush hour!! I couldn’t believe how many people were pushing their way to gate to gate and everyone was in such a hurry! I stood there for a second and just watched and in those brief moments saw a tall colored man from another country carrying his luggage on his head, yes balanced right on top, then I saw two cops escorting a criminal in handcuffs and watched a woman loose her mind because she lost her favorite ring! The lady was making so much noise that many of us just stopped what we were doing and had to find out how this turns out. We watched as the lady took off at high speed back onto the plane but while she was gone her husband found the ring in his carry-on and then was trying to find her to tell her the good news! She returned moments later and he held up the ring, upon spotting it she raced over and gave him a big hug and everyone clapped! Since I was in no rush I slowly walked to the food court area which was more like a feed lot for cattle, I have never seen so many food places all in one area, that was really crazy! I ended up joining the mess and bought a small pizza and joined the herd for lunch in a field of tables. As I dined I watched a cleaning lady slowly clean an area with four phone booth stations at the speed of a snail, talk about milking the o’l clock, it would have been great video! My next flight was to Miami and it also went very well. I arrived into Miami at around 9:00 in the evening and the first thing I did was collect all my luggage again and this included a big box with a bike as well. The next challenge was to get the bike and three other bags on this one little cart, it was close to impossible but I did it! To my horror I was unable to check those bags back in until morning so I found a chair in front of the American Airlines terminal and camped out for the whole night right there. For the next 12 hours I rarely heard one word of English spoken??? I really thought I was in Mexico at times but after asking a Starbucks employee they assured me I was still in the States, you could have fooled me! Throughout the night of trying to sleep while sitting in a chair multiple police officers came to check out the contents of my box and they even brought drug sniffing dogs to double check later on in the evening when they thought I was asleep! That big box was really drawing some major un-wanted attention! During the long night I occasionally had to go the bathroom and had to load everything on the cart once again and take it with me, this really got old fast! I was impressed that Miami has the cleanest bathrooms of anywhere I had been and it was a pleasure using their facilities! I couldn’t even count how many sick people I saw in the two days of travel, it’s no wonder everyone is ill! As I was getting ready to leave Miami the alarms started to go off and an automated voice came on to say; “May we have your attention” The alarm that has been activated is being investigated by the Fire department, please be seated and wait for instruction! That’s real comforting! Then on the plane to Curacao the Captain came on and said, “Everyone please be seated and buckle your seatbelts, we are in for rough weather ahead and it’s going to rough! He could have said it a bit calmer, upon hearing that everyone looked out their windows and braced for the worst which thankfully never happened! So thank God I am home safe and sound, it was great seeing Aimee and the dogs, I missed them a whole lot!
Here’s a new find, this is called a Velvet Shrimp, we found him on the last night dive in front of the Sea Aquarium, he was beautiful and so see-thru!
Dinner is ready and then it’s off to bed, see you tomorrow, Barry
Sep 8, 10 Comments Off
Good morning friends. here’s a cleaning shrimp we hardly ever see and I finally found a place at Vaersenbaai with lots of them, they are called Scarlet-Striped Cleaning Shrimps. Like other cleaning Shrimps he spends most of his day waiting for a fish or eel to pull up into his own personal cleaning garage and then free of charge he will do what he does best, CLEAN! Without the help of these creatures on the reef we would have a lot of sick fish swimming around because they remove parasites that can cause infections, they are like shrimp Band-aids of sorts. I found a bunch of these guys in small cave and it was just big enough to get the front of my camera into, these are the challenges of underwater photography. Still sick with a dumb cold but I did go out hiking yesterday just the same. I didn’t have a great fossil day but did find a few things. Today I am heading back to South Dakota for a few days but will return in a few days again to pick up where I left off. That’s about it, sorry so short I have lots to do. Barry Jul 25, 10 Comments Off
Hey gang, for those of you thinking, “didn’t you already send us this photo years ago?” Well kind of. The photo you may remember is with Aimee also in this scene on the left behind the black sea urchin looking at the lobster. We found this guy in the shallows many moons ago at Vaersenbaai back when it was the place to dive! I remember how shocked Aimee and I were to see this guy hanging out in the only chunk of rock for as far as you could see, the rest was all sand! These lobsters are normally nocturnal but I guess this guy figured he could get more done during the day? We don’t ever see many of these spiny lobsters not even at night, usually we always see the smaller spotted spiny lobster instead.
I just got home from a two and a half hour bike ride and now we are on the way to a birthday party. Sorry so short friends, I am out of time this evening, see ya, Barry
Jun 25, 10 Comments Off
Good evening friends, better late than never, here is my little baby land crab I found the other day while out shooting wildflowers. This is called a Mangrove Crab or Sesarma which is a genus of terrestrial crabs. Many species within this genus live in mangroves and have evolved to be fully terrestrial, which means they do not have to return to the sea even to spawn. Aimee and I see these crabs all over, they love digging holes under rocks and will spend the whole day completely buried in the mud or sand. At night is when they are very active and will venture out for food. This little guy was about 3 inches wide but can get to be as big as 12 to 14 inches. Some of you may remember years ago when we lived at our other house I sent out a photo of a big one that was clinging to the outside of our wall 25 feet above the ground. I remember we heard this scratching noise outside and looked out our second story window and there he was just stuck to the side of the building, they are really amazing climbers. You can see a few of the small half inch shells around him that kind of helps with a size comparison. I found this little jewel buried underneath a piece of plywood but he took off the second I lifted it up. I managed to get in front of him for a few shots before he crawled under the lip of a big rock and started digging himself in and in just minutes he was gone! I did walk by the rock today and looked under, I think he is still there? As these crabs get older they loose this beautiful color and will turn a yellowish/tan color which then makes them much harder to see.
I did a dive today and found something I have only seen in books. It a multi-colored hamlet meaning it’s cross breed with another species of hamlet, it’s so cool, I will try and send it out tomorrow and explain it in more detail. I will most likely send the photo off to some fish experts as it could be a fairly important find.
Off to bed, see you tomorrow, Barry
May 28, 10 Comments Off
Hello one and all. Here’s one of the most beautiful crabs in the Caribbean. I did a dive at around 1:30 with my friend Maikel and while shooting the same two mating trunkfish that I found a few days ago he got my attention and pointed out this little red jewel to me. The carapace on these crabs are smooth and heavy, with no teeth, except for a blunt one at the lower right- and left hand corner. The ground color is pale to brick red with scarlet spots and meandering lines of small white or yellow spots. The ends of the fingers and claws are darker. This is the largest crab in the Caribbean, the carapace can be up to 15 cm in width although I have never seen one that big here. It’s actually pretty unusual to find one of these during the day as they are known to be mainly nocturnal animals. The diving was a bit strange today because of bizarre weather on the topside. We had zero wind, the current and waves have changed directions and the ocean is dead calm which usually means there is a big storm sucking everything out of the atmosphere! The water was filled with plankton today because of the zero water movement and at times looked like it was snowing. I really didn’t find a whole lot to shoot today, I was shocked at finding the same two courting trunkfish still going at it and in the same exact spot as last time, I mean how weird is that??
I keep forgetting to mention this but if for some reason you don’t hear from us for a few days it’s because our old Dell bit the dust or that we are having power outages in Curacao. Please remember that no matter what happens you can still view the daily blog at www.coralreefphotos.com make a note of it, you never know.
We still have one puppy (our little male) that needs a home, so please if you can help us we really could use it, time is running out! Lot’s to do this evening, sorry so short talk to you tomorrow, Barry
Apr 10, 10 Comments Off
 Sea Urcin and Crab Good morning all, when I got home yesterday from work I pumped up the tires on my bike threw some oil on the chain and took off for a long overdo ride. I think it’s been about two weeks since I last went riding, that’s how long I had that stupid cough! The ride was great and the trails were just perfect after that rain we had. I did a loop by the salt ponds last night and noticed most of them were filled with water again, a week ago they were all dried up and salt crystals starting to form. We haven’t had any more rain since that one day but that was a ton of rain that fell and probably enough to get us by for a few more months.
Here’s another shot from Bonaire, this is a Nimble Spray Crab hiding under a Rock Boring Sea Urchin. These crabs which many call an “Urchin Crab” are very common but trying to get a shot of one can often be very difficult or dangerous as they live exclusively under the spines of these urchins. I can’t even tell you how many times I have tried to shoot these things in the past but usually it ends in frustration. They are very scared little creatures and usually crawl further under the spines if approached, they seem to have incredible vision!
That’s it for this morning, need coffee! Off to work, talk to you tonight, Barry
Apr 5, 10 Comments Off
 Red Snapping Shrimp Hey gang, here’s one I forgot to send from Bonaire and without the help of our friend Sal I never would have even know this guy existed! This is called a Red Snapping Shrimp and is hands down one of the most beautiful little shrimps in the Caribbean!! This shrimp lives inside Corkscrew Anemone’s (Bartholomea annulata) and the way to find one is to look for their white and red striped antennae sticking out. Well that’s exactly what Sal did, he first found this big cleaning station filled with at least ten little purple Pederson Cleaner Shrimps and while there taking photos he noticed a Corkscrew Anemone with two long antennae sticking out. He then slowly put his finger down in the middle of the shrimps and waited. The Pederson Shrimps immediately started climbing on his finger and proceeded to give him a nice cleaning when all of a sudden Mr. Cool came out from under his anemone and also started to clean Sal’s finger. The downside to this was this little shrimp isn’t named “Snapping Shrimp” for nothing, look at that powerful claw he has and he used it on poor Sal. Instead of really cleaning Sal’s finger he wanted to eat it and did just that by cutting small chunks out and drawing blood! I must say Sal never moved a muscle even though I knew it was hurting and I could hear him making noise! These beautiful shrimps use their powerful snapping claw to produce loud popping sounds which ward off intruders and help capture food. These shrimps are also called “Pistol Shrimps” and there are four other species that are impossible to distinguish underwater. To get this shot I had to hover right above Sal with my macro lens in fact I was resting on top of his tank at times and getting all his air bubbles in my face with every breath, again the things we do for a photo, thanks again Sal!!
Good news from Curacao tonight, it rained!!!!!!!!! Not a lot but it was something and they said more is on the way!
I have heard from a few readers that the new issue of Sport Diver is out so start looking guys, for those of you with a subscription you will most likely get it a week before everyone else! Thanks for all the support!
That’s it for tonight, see you tomorrow, Barry
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