Athanas anatidactylus

Cameron Easton Photo by Evie Go from the Philippines. I don't have a size, but its likely to be small (macro shot). Any thoughts anyone?

Carl-Johan Nilsson Wow! Maybe an Indian Zebra shrimp.

Carl-Johan Nilsson Which seems to be a Freshwater species so nono...

Evie Go It is very very small & kept on jumping around!

Arne Kuilman Can't find anything like it…

Cameron Easton Yeah. I'm beaten!!

Vie Panyarachun Some kind of snapping shrimp. It's listed as "undetermined" (Athanas sp.2) in Humann & DeLoach's "Reef Creature Identification Tropical Pacific" on page 89.

Cameron Easton OK Vie Panyarachun - nice one. Thanks. You know, I thought that the head, eyes and rostrum looked like an Alpheidae, but because I couldn't see the bigger claw I didn't have the courage of my convictions. I even saw a photo of an Athanus that looked similar, but again convinced myself that there were too many differences. Sometimes you've just got to o with your gut instincts, right? Thanks a lot - this one has annoyed me! Think I need to invest in Humann & Deloach!

Evie Go This is not a snapping shrimp. Snapping shrimps have big snapper claw. I really dnt know what this is.

Cameron Easton Evie. Agreed about the claw in adults. However there are quite a few images of Alpheidae on the web where a big front claw is not at all visible, particularly in side view. Whether these are juveniles I don't know. Might be I guess. So ....... Still undecided??

Evie Go really dnt know.... :(

Arne Kuilman I knew it looked familiar. We have Athanas nitescens in the Netherlands. It doesn't have a large snapping claw. Athanas anatidactylus is also known from the Philippines. Shapewise it's the same, but that shrimp has three white bands and seems redder.

Cameron Easton Thanks Arne Kuilman - really helpful observation. So, I guess we might be looking at an as yet undifferentiated Athanus species. The macro photographers like Evie Go seem to be absolute experts in finding things that are difficult to identify (for me anyway!!) Their eyes are really special in spotting the unusual critters. Of course it doesn't help when species don't have the features they should have. This variation can really throw you! PS - we also have a couple of records of A. nitescens from the west coast of Scotland.

Vie Panyarachun Hi Evie Go, this is the problem with "common" name, perhaps I should have said "alpheid shrimp"... Various Athanas sp. are "snapping shrimps" (Family Alpheidae) even though they do not have huge visible "snapper claw" (chelae).

Evie Go Thx Vie Panyarachun, Arne Kuilman & Cameron Easton! :)