New Specie!

The commensal shrimp that we typically see diving here in Gorontalo turns out to be a new specie!

Named after the Hindu goddess of the arts by Okuno in 2002, the Sarasvati anemone shrimp (Periclimenes sarasvati) has purple-edged white spots on its transparent body. Its antennae are white and its claws are white with purple stripes. As with some other commensal shrimp species, it has a red band across each eye.

Not all anemones in Gorontalo host this shrimp. Instead, we usually see it on mushroom corals (Heliofungia) and also bubble coral (Plerogyra sinuosa). Come dive with us to see this goddess of artful beauty.

Look at a beautiful picture of a pair of these shrimp on bubble coral taken in Gorontalo on our Honeycomb dive site page. Another photo is on the Hole-in-the-Rock Wall dive site page. These pictures as well as others appear on the Edge-of-reef.com.