It’s no secret that our society loves the combination of red and white colors, which is no doubt why it is employed so much during winter festivities. But it turns out that nature really appreciates this peppermint or candy cane color scheme and has produced a number of animals which are predominantly red and white.
It’s important to note that beyond a certain depth there is no red light to make red colors appear red, so at depth most of these shrimp and fish would appear black and white. Perhaps the way the red and white color combination turns out to have similar confusing ‘camouflaging’ properties as the black & white stripes of the zebra.
Nevertheless we really enjoy the attractive combination of red and white on reef shrimp and fish so in the spirit of the season, here’s our top 10 list of peppermint & candy cane marine life.
Eviota jewettae & E. pinocchioi are a pair of peppermint nano gobies
Super white Alpheus randalli pistol shrimp could be mistaken for a freshwater crystal shrimp
Terelabrus flavocephalus, third candy hogfish finally gets described
Iwarna Aquafarm provides last minute candy canes of the aquatic kind
Pseudanthias micah, candy striper clingfish and other new species pictured
