Shrimp ID Help!

[Tubesnout23]

Hello folks!

I am new to Northwest Dive Club blog so I am not sure what is what and where is where yet! Be patient!

Unfortunately I do not have a photograph of the shrimp that I would like to identify. It is white and several inches long, I could see its guts through its skin and it would swim with its small legs backwards in a circle. It was quite funny to watch its acrobatics! It is very attracted by light, in fact it kept bumping into my dive light. I was diving in 20 feet of water only.

Any idea of what it may be?

I could not find anything close in the several ID books that I have looked at so far.

Thanks

[Greg Jensen]

Welcome!
I suspect you saw either an Alaskan pink shrimp (Pandalus eous) or a humpy shrimp (Pandalus goniurus). Both can be very pale at night and your description of their behavior is spot on; they are kind of hard to tell apart when they are buzzing around. Here's a P. eous:

[Tubesnout23]

Welcome!
I suspect you saw either an Alaskan pink shrimp (Pandalus eous) or a humpy shrimp (Pandalus goniurus). Both can be very pale at night and your description of their behavior is spot on; they are kind of hard to tell apart when they are buzzing around. Here's a P. eous:

Thank you.

The back legs looked much shorter, though.

[thelawgoddess]

Cute shrimp!

[Greg Jensen]

The legs look a lot shorter when they're folded up in the swimming position, as you first described. Here's a P. goniurus.

[coachrenz]

Hey tubesnout -

Just in case you didn't know, Greg Jensen is THE resident expert. He has written a book on the Crabs and Shrimp in the Northwest. If he says that is what it was, then that is what it was. You can check out the link in his profile to get to his book.

[Tubesnout23]

The legs look a lot shorter when they're folded up in the swimming position, as you first described. Here's a P. goniurus.

goniurus.jpg

Ah! I never seen a shrimp swimming in the water colum like that before!

Thanks again for your help!

[Tubesnout23]

Hey tubesnout -

Just in case you didn't know, Greg Jensen is THE resident expert. He has written a book on the Crabs and Shrimp in the Northwest. If he says that is what it was, then that is what it was. You can check out the link in his profile to get to his book.

OK!

Good night