Meet the sand shrimpgoby
One of the joys of diving for me is learning about and trying to photograph behavior. Today’s photos are not really portfolio-worthy, but they show the interesting relationship between the sand shrimpgoby and the shrimp they share a home with.
These two creatures are symbiotic (meaning their interaction benefits both of them). The gobies stand guard while the shrimp plays “housekeeper” to their burrow, continually digging and cleaning out the sand. The Gobies will signal when predators are near. When I got too close, they both dashed back into the hole. The fish came back out first, followed by the shrimp a few moments later, then the housecleaning continued.
Here’s you can see the shrimp doing some housecleaning while the goby is on lookout
Another shot of the pair–all of the floating sand was brought out by the shrimp
Here’s a closeup of the goby’s face–looks like he has a mouth full of sand so I guess he shares in the cleaning chores
