These shrimp are rarely seen, but their works are everywhere. The shrimp form grooves on the surfaces of massive living coral colonies, and live within the grooves, harvesting the algae that grows within them. The branching grooves resemble petroglyphs carved into lava flows by early Hawaiians. A petroglyph from Puako on the island of Hawaii is shown here.
With considerable effort, Christina Sylvester managed to get an image of one of the elusive shrimp. She noted that it is easy enough to tell if a shrimp is there by its white banded antennae, but it is difficult to line up the camera and lights just right to look down into the burrow.
The rest of the photos show more of the petroglyphs on various corals.
Tiny white hydroids line the shrimp burrows, along with the dark algae "farmed" by the shrimp.
Created 3 July 2018
Updated 5 September 2018