Camarones de Kahalu'u and Other Delights

  A week ago, Sandra and I went snorkeling with Bob Hillis at K Bay.  Yesterday we went back, creating temporal bookends around a week in which we added the seahorse to our list. Last week the water was

A Cone Shell Hermit Crab Grazing at Kahalu'u Sept. 2015

warm and the coral was bleaching, but there were still a few interesting things to admire.

    Swimming across the bay towards the breakwater, we ran into a small yellow immature of the Orange Shouldered Surgeon.  I nabbed a couple good photos and I believe we can say that this fish was so young that it did not yet have any evidence of the orange band that gives the species its common name. A few days later on our seahorse adventure up north, we ran into many of these immatures, all lacking the orange shoulder.

    At the same time we saw the baby surgeon, I spied a cone shell hermit crab, aka "Stripey" nestled among some algae.  More often, I need to pluck a suspicious cone shell off the bottom and hold it for a while before the eponymous hermit pokes his nose out.  What a treat it was to see Stripey going about his business independent of our intervention.

    Out near Surfer's Rock, Bob, employing his notoriously sharp eyes, found some shrimp and was lucky enough to take the picture that you see here.  He sent the picture to me

Eye Spot Shrimp S. neglectus  photo Bob Hillis

and I played around with it to the extent that my aging photo processor would permit.  I was pleased to note that Bob had captured on film a species that I have seen several times at Kahalu'u, but never been able to photograph or definitively identify.

    Not being certain of my identification, I sent the picture to John Hoover who verified, in a playful way, that Bob had photographed the Eye Spot Shrimp...the green legs were a pretty good clue. One might think that the name of this species would have something to do with those handsome flanges that seem to shield the face of the tiny shrimp.  (In the event that you are unimpressed with Bob's photograph, you should know that this animal is smaller than even a modestly self-respecting cockroach and twice as shy.)  The shrimp actually has two bulls eye spots on its aft thorax that suggest its common name.

   So, you might reasonably ask, what about those handsome anterior shields?  both times I have seen this sprightly creature those anterior shields were elevated. My research on

Giggity, Giggity!  Let's Put On Our Antennal Scales!

  the internet did not yield any small shrimp with shields up. I suspected that they might be sensory organs, but I was loathe to pass them off as such to you without corroboration.  In John Hoover's Sea Creatures book, the Eye Spot Shrimp just sits there, possibly on a wet plate...I think that its sensory days might have passed ante fotografum.

    So today, as I was dealing with my email, I was required to fiddle with my Linkedin account.  Not that I am all that important in any business sense, but in the way of social media, Likedin seems to have its hooks in me.  In the process, who should I run into but Marta DeMaintenon, who is constantly updating her Linkedin status commensurate with her advancing academic career.  I became linked to Dr. DeM several years ago when Sandra and I were learning about hermit crabs.  She was the hot young invertebrate zoologist at UH Hilo to which I was referred and I have victimized her ever since.  Poor Marta.

    Being a good sport, she responded promptly, saying, "Pics are blurry but I'm guessing they're antennal scales. It's a structure attached to the base of the second antenna, and certainly has setae that would be sensory, but the specific nature of the beast is

The Banded Coral Shrimp Peers Out of Grendl's Cave.

beyond me. I think for slipper lobsters, they're the same as the big flaps in front that those guys have in lieu of long antennae."  Marta didn't waste any time researching her answer, but being brilliant, she was able to bolster my suspicions wiki wiki. 

     As long as I was asking her questions, I might have asked why in God's green earth, did a beautiful and highly educated woman like her want to be Linkedin with me?  Does she have a particular vein of masochism that we here at the Beach Blog should know about and exploit?  Anyway, antennal scales: springy, bristly sensory organs...I bet Glenn Quagmire wishes he had a couple.

     We cruised around the rest of the pond.  Just before Sandra went ashore there was a gentle pattering all about that, as it turned out, was rain drops falling on the water.  This was a pleasant sound and the rain actually cooled the

Sandra In the Rain With Diamonds.

water surface.   A few minutes later, as Bob and I were headed in, a large moray eel  came shooting by and took up housekeeping in one of the folds of the pahoehoe right in the entrance.  As it went by I thought I saw something peculiar about its head.  Looking into Grendl's cave, I saw not only the eel, but a large banded coral shrimp.  Had the eel brought along its own housekeeping unit?  Despite the eel peering out at me like the pit bull that lives with the drug dealer next door, I worked my way in for a picture.  As you can see, my best effort will not end up in National Geographic.  However, this was the first banded coral shrimp that I have found on my own and I was really pleased.

    Scooting ahead to the end of the week, Sandra and I returned to Kahalu'u yesterday. In the intervening week, the water temperature had dropped at least five degrees, into the low 80's.  Sadly

Stonefish Courtesy of SKG Graphics

 the coral bleaching was even more obvious.  Several patches looked irreversible.

    Out around Surfer's Rock, Sandra hailed me.  "Stonefish!"  She had spotted a Devil Scorpionfish under a coral head.  This was a beautiful individual in about three feet of fairly clear water...gray and brown stripes, lots of filaments on the skin.  His tail stuck out of the shadow created by the over hanging coral head and I believe this confused the camera.  Although there is always a bit of current in that part of the bay, I can't complain about conditions. I took several shots just two or three feet away from this cooperative scorpionfish.  Do you like Sandra's graphics?

    On the way in, Sandra found a large green Dragon Wrasse.  A happy end to a productive week.

jeff

Don't Eat Me.  I'm Not Ripe Yet!