These little bobtail squid were pretty common sightings on our night dives in Anilao. Most of the time we would find them completely buried in the sand, with only their eyes poking out. The real show was when you got lucky enough to find them out, and not buried. When threatened by you, they would curl all 10 of their arms to try and look fierce. A brave act for an organism about the size of your thumb. One more cool fact, these squid have a bioluminescent bacteria that lives inside their tissues to help them camouflage themselves by obstructing their shadow.
This pair of Coleman shrimp enjoy the comfort and protection of the fire urchin in which they make their home. The larger of the two is the female, and while the fire urchin doesn’t benefit from the shrimp, the shrimps enjoy the protection of poisonous spines.
