This decorator crab was on a mission. If I hadn't lifted my strobe, he would have walked straight into it. BTW, I wish I could grow a handlebar moustache like his.

Enjoy,
kadushi bob

Bob,

Great pic! Where was this taken?

Meredith,

Thanks for the kind words.

Just north of town. He was headed straight for Karel's in Kralendijk. It was on a night dive, Sunday March 7th. I'm not sure what time they close, but this guy was determined to get there ASAP! : )

I believe it's a Hermit Crab

John,

You may be correct or I may have uploaded a misleading image. Here's a full view of the creature. If I have misidentified, I apologize for the erroneous information

I don't have Humann's Reef Creature book available at the moment. I assumed that a Hermit Crab uses an empty shell. I'm not sure how to categorize what my crab has on it's back. It looks to me like something a dermatologist could have a field day with ; ).

I must say Robert that I agree with John I am looking at the Humann reef creatures book and this looks more like a star eyed hermit crab or the bar eyed hermit.. than the decorator crab...Was one claw larger than the other???

Let's try to upload that full head on view again.

well with all that STUFF he surely thinks he is a decorator crab... I wonder if the shell just had all that stuff on it before the crab took over??? here is a picture from the reef creature book by Humann

There's a shell on his back with anomones on it. I've seen that before. Amazing how strong the hermit crab is hauling all that around.

John & Freddie,

Thanks again for the fine detective work. Who knows, maybe I was also mistaken on his destination. He may actually be headed to Greece for the weight lifting competition at the upcoming Summer Olympics : )

Bob, What kind of camera are you using?

Beautiful shots, Kadushi Bob! He does look like he is on a mission of some sort and I know I would move out of his way, too! Carole

Meredith,

I'm still using my old, discontinued, obsolete, only available in black, Olympus c4040. I set it to manual, spot macro, forced flash, ISO 100, SHQ.

Full time auto focus is off, relying solely on half press shutter, and the tiny green light, to capture and confirm focus. I find this technique to both save battery life and shorten shutter lag.

For lighting on this trip I used a single Ikelite DS 125, just like yours. During the day, as in the image below ( I'm too chicken to call them banded butterflies), I fired it with the Ike manual controller. On night dives I used the Ike TTL sensor.

BTW, speaking of chicken......

I've heard of catfish, dogfish, houndfish, batfish, scorpionfish, even cowfish.

Why not chickenfish????????

As a matter of fact, these will no longer be considered a pair of banded butteryfly fish. From this day forward they will now be known as a pair of BONARIAN STRIPED CHICKENFISH!!!!!

: )
kadushi bob

Bob,

I didnt realize that was you! Your shots continue to amaze me!

We are planning a trip to Bonaire in September. How was your trip this year?

Chickenfish it is!

Forgot hogfish, porkfish, bull shark, mutton snapper, porcupinefish, squirrelfish, sea robin...there's already a roosterfish, and a "chicken of the sea" (not just the tuna, but a local name for a northern puffer or blowfish). Great pics!

As for the chickenfish...

-David

One more try for the chickenfish