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Looking for I and the Bird? Its down there somewhere at the bottom of this post, up here we're going to take yet another look at commensal shrimp. If you're new to the site and don't have a clue what I'm talking about basically there are a number of species of shrimp that live in the protection of various sea anemones and stinging corals and corallimorphs. Many of them are in the genus Periclemenes and I've previously shared some pictures of them here, here and here (if you like your "shimps" meatier and less see-thru try this post). Those were all Atlantic species but in the Pacific, especially in the diverse waters of Indonesia and the Philippines, there are loads of other species. This is P. holthuisi.

I can't remember quite what those strange balloons with fingerprints he's sat on are - either a bubble coral or a bubble tip anemone that has decided to get over excited. Either way I really like this shot as it captures the delicacy of the shrimp and the contrast in textures between it and its home. The only thing I don't like about it is that at the time it was taken I was supposed to be photographing thresher sharks but they were as uncooperative last year as they were 4 years ago (which was when I took the thresher pictures in this post). Periclemenes are such good subjects and so diverse I'll probably drop a few more of these at some point and I'll probably also unleash this year's threshers cos I know you guys love sharks as much as I do.