Rare Shrimps For Your Critter Wishlist

We love shrimps! 🦐

Nudibranchs seem to be the favorite critters of most underwater macro photographers as they are not only diverse in color, size and body shapes – they also move slowly (most species). It’s a little different with marine shrimps. They can move fast and sometimes even disappear completely in a blink of an eye. This makes them a more difficult photo subject and calls for patience and slow movements. But if you get the perfect shot of one of Romblon’s rare species, you feel even more rewarded. Here we want to present you a list of some of our favorite Romblon shrimps.

1.) Japanese Dragon Shrimp (Anachlorocurtis commensalis)

The Japanese Dragon Shrimp is a beautiful crustacean with a partly transparent body. As far as we know these interesting photo subjects get rarely seen in other diving destinations.

2.) Shell Mimic Shrimp (Vercoia interrupta)

It took us a while to find this small master of camouflage. These shrimps perfectly resemble small shells sitting between rubble or sand.

3.) Scorpion Shrimps (Metapontonia scorpio and Metapontonia fungiacola)

These crustaceans live exclusively on certain species of hard corals. They have interesting big eyes and some have a body covered in small white spots.

4.) Sashimi Shrimp

These colorful shrimps are one of our most requested critters. They come in various color combinations including white, red, green, orange, pink, brown, purple and white.

5.) Upside-Down Shrimp (Arete sp.)

This might be the rare occasion, where you can take photos from the underside of a shrimp, while the animal is behaving naturally and undisturbed. These shrimp move between the spikes of their sea urchin habitat often up-side-down.

6.) Basket Star Shrimp (Lipkemenes lanipes)

This is a difficult subject for underwater macro photography. This beautiful shrimp species can be found exclusively on and between the arms of nocturnal basket stars.

7.) Chocolate Shrimp (Periclimenes sp.)

The unusual coloration in a deep chocolate brown in combination with white stripes and a partly transparent body makes the Chocolate Shrimp an outstanding subject for underwater macro photography.

8.) Snowflake Hairy Shrimp (Phycocaris sp.)

This shrimp is more fluffy than hairy. They have interesting red or orange markings on their white body and a circle of bright red hairs around their eyes.

9.) Hydroid Shrimp (Hippolyte sp.)

This shrimp species seem to be still undescribed. They have a brown to beige body coloration and white markings all over the body.

10.) Simplex Shrimp (Phyllognathia simplex)

This species is close related to the Spiny Tiger Shrimp. The Simplex Shrimp prefers mucky sediments or sand and has interesting colorful markings on its arms and body.

11.) Noumea Gorgonian Shrimp (Hamodactylus noumeae)

This shrimp will add color to your photo portfolio. The small shrimps can be found in various colors including red, rose, pink and orange and always match the color of their host coral.

12.) Green Dragon Shrimp (Miropandalus hardingi)

The Green Dragon Shrimp can not only be found in green, but also in orange. Both color forms are the same species: Miropandalus hardingi. The green color form is rarely found (in comparison to the orange one).

You can find more interesting shrimps and related Romblon critters here: Overview Shrimps of Romblon