Weird Critters of Anilao, Batangas

One of the joys of underwater photography is finding weird and unusual critters. Although Anilao is known for seeing various nudibranchs there are also a number of unusual critters roaming the sandfloor such as the rhinopias which comes from a family of scorpionfishes.

Another unusual critter is the dragonet. It seems to walk the ocean floor. Check out this wongat dragonet.

And another type of dragonet, which is a more colorful one.

There were various types of scorpion fish, this one liked to hang out with yellow gobies.

This one was of the hairy variety aka hairy scorpionfish.

Others were so tiny or easily camouflaged that it was hard to see them without the help of a guide.

This hairy shrimp looked like a piece of brown cotton on the sea floor.

This tiny horned shrimp was so small. Fingernail and pointy stick for perspective.

Cool to see this teeny-tiny pair of anemone shrimp.

Is this a branch floating near the sea fan? It looks like a pipefish of some sort.

I saw other critters under the sand, among anemones, and even inside bottles! Check out the pics to see them all.