– Xeno Crab (Xenocarcinus tuberculatus) –
Indeed this is a strange crab. Some might even say it looks alien. Interestingly enough the word xeno, which is derived from Greek word xenos, actually translates into strange, foreign or alien. They definitely nailed the name for this fascinating creature.
Xeno crabs are imitator crabs and will blend in so well with the whip coral, that they live on, that most divers will pass them by without even known. In fact I did just that. I was actually searching for one on this whip coral and after giving up and moving off my dive buddy, Simon, happened to catch a glimpse of its legs moving up the whip coral as we continued on with our dive. During our surface interval he told me about what he had seen. I was truly flabbergasted that I had not been able to see it myself, as the place he described that he had seen it on the whip coral had been the exact same place I was looking. On the second dive I went straight back to it's home and there it was. Master imitators indeed!
Date: July 30, 2020
Location: Northeast Coast, Taiwan
Indeed this is a strange crab. Some might even say it looks alien. Interestingly enough the word xeno, which is derived from Greek word xenos, actually translates into strange, foreign or alien. They definitely nailed the name for this fascinating creature.
Xeno crabs are imitator crabs and will blend in so well with the whip coral, that they live on, that most divers will pass them by without even known. In fact I did just that. I was actually searching for one on this whip coral and after giving up and moving off my dive buddy, Simon, happened to catch a glimpse of its legs moving up the whip coral as we continued on with our dive. During our surface interval he told me about what he had seen. I was truly flabbergasted that I had not been able to see it myself, as the place he described that he had seen it on the whip coral had been the exact same place I was looking. On the second dive I went straight back to it's home and there it was. Master imitators indeed!
Date: July 30, 2020
Location: Northeast Coast, Taiwan
– Soft Coral Porcelain Crab (Lissoporcellana sp.) –
I've been on the hunt for pygmy seahorses recently. I've always wanted to see one with my own eyes, so I've been studying sea fans very closely for these tiny beauties. I can easily spend around 15 minutes on just one fan, which doesn't sound long to most people unless you're a diver and you know how much bottom time you have doing a 28 meter dive on a single cylinder.
While I still am yet to find a pygmy seahorse. I have been finding quite a lot of other creatures that I did not know inhabited soft corals! For instance this cute little porcelain crab that couldn't have been more than 5 mm. What made this shot tricky is that this area is a sea fan garden, and breathtakingly beautiful at that. So the only way I could actually shoot this properly without damaging anything was to shoot upside down, which lead to quite a headrush and had me gagging a little on the water that was flowing into my regulator and ending up with with me feeling fairly disorientated by the time I'd finished shooting. Think I should find a fan that I can be level with next time.
Date: July 30, 2020
Location: Northeast Coast, Taiwan
I've been on the hunt for pygmy seahorses recently. I've always wanted to see one with my own eyes, so I've been studying sea fans very closely for these tiny beauties. I can easily spend around 15 minutes on just one fan, which doesn't sound long to most people unless you're a diver and you know how much bottom time you have doing a 28 meter dive on a single cylinder.
While I still am yet to find a pygmy seahorse. I have been finding quite a lot of other creatures that I did not know inhabited soft corals! For instance this cute little porcelain crab that couldn't have been more than 5 mm. What made this shot tricky is that this area is a sea fan garden, and breathtakingly beautiful at that. So the only way I could actually shoot this properly without damaging anything was to shoot upside down, which lead to quite a headrush and had me gagging a little on the water that was flowing into my regulator and ending up with with me feeling fairly disorientated by the time I'd finished shooting. Think I should find a fan that I can be level with next time.
Date: July 30, 2020
Location: Northeast Coast, Taiwan
