Did a pretty cool dive at Alki a few days ago and I found a few interesting critters. Two of em I need some ID help. The third, I just wanna brag. lol.
First isn't the shrimp, it's what's inside the shrimp. I found two of these guys right next to each other and the one not in the photo didn't have anything like this in its belly. Is it a parasite of some sort?
Second is one that I'm pretty sure several people have put up, but I've never actually seen the conclusive ID. So Leslie's probably gonna have an easy time, lol. This guy was amazing. He was all curled up on the bottom, but I would estimate he was at the very least a foot long, if not more. And that's just what we can see.
It's a threespine shrimp, Heptacarpus tridens, with a bopyrid isopod (Hemiarthrus abdominalis) on its abdomen. These parasitic isopods live right in the spot where the shrimp would normally be carrying eggs and affected shrimp don't reproduce.
Nice shot of the warbonnet! I love those guys. However, I'm ready to put a parasite filter on my image viewing......ick. :looking: The worst part is ---I'm sure as my pix get better, I'll be treated to more of them (ugh)
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:norris: 
