Porcelain Anemone Crab

Blogged by Simon on November 27, 2009 4:15pm | Last updated by Simon on February 21, 2010 12:24am | Category: Underwater Photography | Get a Print Get a Print |

Porcelain Anemone Crab (Neopetrolisthes Maculosus)This little crab is yet another inhabitant of the sea anemone, together with the Clownfish and the Cleaner shrimp. They are called Porcelain Crabs (Neopetrolisthes maculatus) because of their tendency to voluntarily part with a limb when in distress. This behaviour is apparently designed to distract predators while the crab flees (they subsequently grow back the missing limb).

As a photo opportunity, you have to love anything that lives inside a sea anemone. The colorful tentacles, though poisonous to most creatures, create a fantastic backdrop to any image and they reflect the camera’s flash in ever changing shades of brown, red or green.

Photographed with the 60mm macro lens, f/16 for 1/60s, ISO 200. Edited in Photoshop with a brush to correct some unsharpness around the crab’s eye, adjusted for warmer color temperature and definition +50% in Aperture to bring out the surface texture on the crab’s hard shell.

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