Despite the name, soft corals can be anything but. An attempt to palm the terminal clusters of a colony of nephtheids, specifically the cauliflower-like puffs that proliferate on soft northern shores, can result in a hand of skinny pricks from minute spikes that surround each pink polyp. Possibly a member of an azooxanthellate genus of octocorals, the colonies consist of a stout trunk ending in multiple branches bearing umbellate or glomerate bundles of indistinguishable individuals. The supporting structure is strengthened by calcareous sclerites and may be wholly obscured by the bushy bits, especially when the tissue loses water during periods of emersion.
For various marine invertebrates, these corals offer a refuge of dense brollies and dendritic mazes. Brittle stars and porcelain crabs are benign houseguests that latch on for a better bite of the planktonic soup. The stems also harbour cowrie-like snails with mantle extensions that ape the colours of their prey. Tiny shrimp flit about the fleshy column, using the forks and tunnels below the 'florets' as hiding places and invisible playgrounds, but have neither the inclination nor the adaptations to stay for long. Permanent residency is reserved for their slightly larger cousins with bleached hues that match the walls of their adopted home. These associates of alcyonarians, like many of the snapping shrimp that blast holes in rubble or dig through silt, usually occur in pairs and probably jointly defend their arborescent territories from fellow alpheids.
Other species of Synalpheus dwell on crinoids or sea urchins, or form eusocial colonies within the chambers of sponges. Synalpheus neomeris is associated with Dendronephthya and may be the species not uncommonly seen on soft corals at the longitudinal extremes of Singapore's territory. But the just over an inch-long shrimp offers neither visual focus, with its see-through carapace that melts into the mounds of its host, nor taxonomic certainty, for animals labelled as neomeris or near neomeris have been found in bryozoans and sponges or living freely in coral rubble. Lacking the eyes to tease out its identity, the only trick left in the bag was to scoop the shrimp into a clear pool, capture its profile against a bed of rocking stones and return these ghosts into the shell of their existence by a shoal of hardened powers.
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