How about these guys?
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...eryfishies.jpg

Got me. Is that an anemone they're on or a sea-slug or something else entirely? I'll have to find me a good shrimp resource to figure these out. I do assume they're shrimp of some sort (or some related arthropod order, like possum shrimp), and I also assume they are symbiotic on whatever that is, but if it's not a cnidarian of some sort, but rather a mollusc or echidnoderm, I could be off base there.

Whatever they are they are cute little bugs.

You're right, they are a type of shrimp. If you choose to end your research on it, I think you hit it close enough that I would toss the ball to you again, and divulge more of the name that I found.

Btw Th, are you trained/educated/experienced as some kind of animal/biology expert? You seem to be very knowledgeable about all sorts of critters.

I've just been reading nature books since about 1975.

I should note that one of the very first books that I really enjoyed as a small kid was Larousse Natural History. Belonged to my Grandad and Nana passed it to me when he passed on. I called it the Cassowary Book from as long ago as I have any memory at all, because of the big color plate of the Cassowary head. I just read it cover to cover for the first time in my life 2 months ago (rather than flipping here and there.)

I'm not going to get a chance to research it tonight (Getting a 90 gallon tank for the other side of the TV - 200 bucks with stand, lids, and lights. Practically theft) but I do want to keep working this. Can you tell me what that is they're on, though? I'm guessing Anemone, but I could be off by a phylum.

For the shrimp photo I posted above, I tried to track down more info about it other than "walindi alien shrimp" as it was identified when I found it, but even that didn't give me much. It sure looks like they're on an anemone of some kind, but I can't be sure and I don't have more on the name.

Wow, $200 bucks for such a nice tank and setup is a steal for sure, TheePH!

Nothin' moving here for a while....I'll post one...

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/33/61...bb5e14.jpg?v=0

I'll give somebody else a chance.

one-legged spotted rhinocerous?

Nope...any other guesses?

I've been searching ...it's been sort of on the tip of my tongue since you posted it but I just couldn't come up with the name of it. Today I did some more googling, one term "strange animals of the african plains" came up with this painting
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...s/image130.jpg


So then I went to the site that had the painting and finally found it.

Okapi :)

okapi
 

Correct...

okapi (ōkăp'ē) [key], nocturnal ruminant mammal, Okapia johnstoni, of the giraffe family. It inhabits the almost sunless rain forests of the upper Congo and feeds on leaves. Its shape is reminiscent of a giraffe's, but it is smaller, with a much shorter neck. It is deep reddish brown with black and white zebra-striped legs. Its head is giraffelike and in the male bears blunt skin-covered horns. The okapi was unknown to zoologists until the beginning of the 20th cent. It is classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Artiodactyla, family Giraffidae.
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright

my turn again? How about this one ...I'm guessing Tophat would know this right away since he's an animalistic genius

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...tophatbird.jpg

It is a Cassowaries (genus Casuarius)

....a very large flightless birds native to the tropical forests of New Guinea and northeastern Australia. Some nearby islands also have small cassowary populations, but it is not known if these are natural or the result of the New Guinea trade in young birds. They are frugivorous; fallen fruit and fruit on low branches is the mainstay of their diet. They also eat fungi, snails, insects, frogs, snakes and other small animals. They are a keystone species of rain forests because they eat fallen fruit whole and distribute seeds across the jungle floor via excrement.

Try this one...

http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/explor...eodory_600.jpg

(don't look at the photo file name)

Looks like a Dory of some sort, but I don't see anything in Fishbase under Genus Zeus or Family Zeidae that matches, and the mouth is wrong. (Funny thing - Pterophyllum scalare - the freshwater angelfish - was at one point classifies in the Geneus Zeus with John Dories) Could it be an Oreo of some sort?

How about Neocyttus rhomboidalis, the Spiky Oreo? A deepwater fish, related to the Dories, living on the continental slope of the Southern Oceans, forming large shoals and feeding on salps, crustaceans, fish, and squid.

you got it...it's an Oreo Dory...

There are several varieties of the dory, the most prominent being the John dory. The John dory is also called St. Peter's fish in Europe, because the thumbprint marking on its side is attributed to the legend of the fisherman Simon (later known as St. Peter) grasping the fish tightly to search for a coin hidden in its mouth. Other fish that are called dories include the smooth oreo and black oreo dory, both of which do not actually belong to the dory family but are part of the Oreosomatidae, or oreo family.

OK...
Give this one a shot. No fair peeking at the image name.
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Aplysia-punctata-BA.jpg

I would think it is a variety of sea slug.

maybe I'm reading too much into details I think I'm seeing in the pic, but I think I see an eye and a mouth on the lower right, so I'm searching for a fish that looks like a sea slug type thing.

Y'all are on the right track with sea slug - it's related.
Badnick, the head is at the other end.

Sometimes I make that mistake in real life, too. I don't think I like slugs.

ahhh, the good old www.glaucus.org.uk had it.

The Sea Hare, Aplysia punctata, from the Dorset shore. This aplysiid mollusc is usually brown in colour, although green ones have been discovered from Dorset before.

PS: I just looked out of curiosity and saw that you, Tophat, posted your link from glaucus.org ...I didn't look at that before I found it.


How about this cute little guy?:
http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...arnivcenti.jpg

That is a walking case of the willies is what that is.

Scolopendra gigantea? Amazon Giant Centipede?

that is correct. Unfortunately, I found some vids of those things eating live mice/rats ...willie willard

Yeah. Saw that those were out there. Passed em by. Carnivorous fish are one thing, carnivorous, venemous chitinous tubes with a godzillion legs are entirely something else.

Shudder.

OK, let's give this one a try...
http://la.barousse.free.fr/photo/faune/desman.jpg

best I can say is that it is a type of mole.

Sort of, a Eurasian Aquatic one. Can y'all get it from there?

ahhh, I just found this and noticed that it's one of the most easily recognized shrews ...so did I recognize it? Noooooo. What I found:

Eurasian water shrew (Neomys fodiens) is one of the largest and most easily recognised of all shrews.

I hope my assumption that I was right is ...right. So here's my next one ...this is sort of a "trick question" ...except for Tophat who seemingly can't be tricked about such things ...I mean that as a compliment, not sarcasm.

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g2...lisdatding.jpg

I just wanted to say some of you all are some animal-knowing motherfuckers. Very, very impressive...I thought I knew my animals, but compared to some of you, I barely rgister a blip on the meter.

My guess at the above would be some type of frog eggs? How bout south american poison dart frog?

Good shot. Egg is right, but not frogs.

Are those the eggs of the Harlequin Bug? (I'm digging deep into elementary school for that one, and can't go researching it just now.)

Correct, they are insect eggs. For more specifics, I have to wait to get home in about 1-1/2hrs to see exactly what I wrote down it was. Otherwise, if you guys are satisfied with bug eggs, proceed on Tophat. Or guess away and I'll check this again a little later.

edit: these are Fall Cankerworm eggs Alsophila pometaria


So it's back to you Tophat

http://www.reefngom.org/slipdici.jpg

I hate to go to the fish again, but I love the name on this one.

It's a slippery dick. Seriously. If anyone else wants to take a crack at it, post away.

Let's start this up again.
http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w...lemorph2_L.jpg

I'd say that looks like a praying mantis

It's definitely a mantid of some sort, but the purple legs make me wonder (though the filename, now that I think about it, suggests that they're not of themselves enough for speciation). I think I agree with Nick.

I looked through a lot of mantid pics and none were just like that one above, with the reddish legs and eyes being exceptional. I guess inBOIL will have to give us a yay or nay.

It's not a mantid.

It's Steve.

Ok, I'll give a hint. They're found only in Namibia.

The newly dubbed "gladiator"? Carnivorous, eh?

Says the order is called Mantophasmatodea.