Gulf Shrimp In Ginnie

[navycaver]

A little off topic.
First of all I did see what I thought was a shrimp the evening of July 3rd between keyhole and park bench. So I guess I was not imagining it.
Now my question. How common are larger eel's in Ginnie around the gallery? I saw a eel a little over 2 feet about 30 feet or so from the lips on the way out on the same dive. This was a Vortex size eel. I have a good number of dives in Ginnie over the last 5 years and never seen a large mature eel.

[navycaver]

Thought I may have been narced and seeing critters LOL

[corvettejoe]

A little off topic.
First of all I did see what I thought was a shrimp the evening of July 3rd between keyhole and park bench. So I guess I was not imagining it.
Now my question. How common are larger eel's in Ginnie around the gallery? I saw a eel a little over 2 feet about 30 feet or so from the lips on the way out on the same dive. This was a Vortex size eel. I have a good number of dives in Ginnie over the last 5 years and never seen a large mature eel.

I saw a good 1.5+ foot white body with pale yellow spots eel at the bottom of little devil's before. Really cool looking. NO idea what it was, as I can't find anything when searching for it's description.

saw snakes cruising over the edge of devil's ear at night. Decided not to go down there as I didn't want snakes falling on my head LOL

[Jerry]

Hey, I forgot to mention this earlier, but last week when I was diving Ginnie, I came upon two small (about the size of a 30/45 in the grocery store) gulf shrimp in Ginnie. This was about 15' past the park bench on the gold line.

I have seen a lot of different critters in caves that shouldn't be there, but I've never seen a gulf shrimp. Has anyone else? Certainly this isn't common.

If you dive any of the river caves along the Santa Fe you will see quite a few Grass Shrimp. They are usually rather small but can get into the popcorn shrimp size range. Normally you find them near cave openings. I would imagine they are what you saw. Eels are common in the river caves as well. Catch ginnie at off hours; it isn't uncommon to see them there.

In days gone by it wasn't unusual to see immature jacks and needlefish around the Eye and the Ear as well.

Jerry

[snakedoc]

I saw a good 1.5+ foot white body with pale yellow spots eel at the bottom of little devil's before. Really cool looking. NO idea what it was, as I can't find anything when searching for it's description.

saw snakes cruising over the edge of devil's ear at night. Decided not to go down there as I didn't want snakes falling on my head LOL

I almost always see shrimp inside Devil's. They are a freshwater species but are NOT troglobites. Gulf shrimp at Ginnie would be uncommon, but certainly not impossible.
Regarding snakes and eels, my dream is to lay naked in a den of writhing snakes or in a bath tub full of freshwater eels.
In the interim, I've had to settle for frolicking in jello or coleslaw with naked chicks. The problem with that is those little down feathers always go up my nose or get stuck in my throat.

[TracyN]

I came face to face with a large 2-3 ft eel in Devil's Eye. It surprised me and I managed to snap a picture of it as it swam away.

[cavedivingwoman]

'Had an eel encounter (about 18" long) exiting July Spring about a year ago. That is, the eel and I chose the same time to exit July. I hadn't seen it in the passage itself against that silvery sand, but I suspect that it squeezed in from the JS opening....