Gug Underwater

Gug Underwater Art gallery featuring the water photography of Chris Gug. Custom design center. Worldwide shipping. Art gallery featuring the underwater photography of Chris Gug
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Crab…apple???Another first… not exactly sure what this swimming crab was clinging to, but it appears to be a fruit. Tra...
06/12/2026

Crab…apple???
Another first… not exactly sure what this swimming crab was clinging to, but it appears to be a fruit. Trash, both organic and inorganic, is everywhere in the waters around Bali, but this one left me with more questions than answers… I sometimes find swimming crabs like this floating in the sargassum or other floating seaweed, but far more often, they’re just swimming along without clinging to anything in the top 15m or so of the water column. So what was this guy doing? Could he be nibbling on the fruit? Tough to say. I’m usually disinclined to devote half an hour waiting to find out an answer like this, because, as in all my Aliens diving, I can’t spend much time looking at anything that doesn’t score a 10 on the amazing-o-meter. Every second that I’m stopping for something other than a 10, is a second that I’m not hunting for what might be floating right behind me!

Shot for my Aliens Collection using scuba, while drifting with the plankton far offshore from Tulamben Bali, over the deep abyss, at night.

What looks like a bebeh octopus is actually a full-grown male paper nautilus, riding atop of a mauve stinger jellyfish. ...
06/09/2026

What looks like a bebeh octopus is actually a full-grown male paper nautilus, riding atop of a mauve stinger jellyfish. Paper nautilus octopus exhibit drastic sexual dimprphism, wherein the much larger females form a shell to protect her eggs, but the males stay around the size of a female. I often find these males inside salps, but when they’re on top of a pretty jelly, I can’t resist grabbing a few shots!

Sadly, the relationship hetween the nautilus and the jellyfish is poorly understood, and understudied, primarily because it’s impossible to study in a lab. While at the very least, the nautilus must cause strain and extra caloric expenditure for the jellyfish, many unanswered questions exist regarding if any further damage is being done to the jelly. Could the nautilus be consuming the jelly? Perhaps it steals food the jelly has caught but not yet digested? Or is it simply along for the ride, using the jellyfish for protection, perhaps even providing some unseen benefit to its open-ocean Uber?

Shot using scuba, while drifting in the open ocean, far from shore, over the deep abyss, at night.

Eels, in an early life stage called leptocephalus, drift with the plankton, eating tiny invertebrates and fish. Normally...
05/31/2026

Eels, in an early life stage called leptocephalus, drift with the plankton, eating tiny invertebrates and fish. Normally, they’re swimming along quite hyperactively, but every so often, likely because of a startle, they coil up in a ball, and this is usually the only time I’ll photograph them. No one knows for sure, but it stands to reason that it’s tucking its vulnerable head safely inside its body.
And the white glare from the back of the eye on the other side of its head is the back of the tapetum lucidum - the same type of reflective tissue in cats & deer & most nocturnal animals that reflects light within the eye to enhance night vision. Often when shooting my Aliens, my strobes expose the fish properly, but the extremely reflective tapetum lucidum reflects back an overabundance of light through its transparent head.

Shot using scuba, at night, while drifting with the plankton, out over the deep abyss.

A young Jack finds shelter in the open ocean by burying itself inside the stinging tentacles of a jellyfish. They then ...
05/30/2026

A young Jack finds shelter in the open ocean by burying itself inside the stinging tentacles of a jellyfish. They then swim through the vast endless sea together, propelled by the jellyfish’s rythmic pulses, but steered by the jack fish’s choices. Whether just mostly or completely immune to the jellyfish’s stinging nematocyst cells, it uses the jelly for its shelter, while the jelly has absolutely no say in the matter, and its hard to know if the jelly is completely unfazed by the relationship, or if it is slowly damaged and eventually dies as a result of being held hostage.

Big thanks to Steven Kovacs Nature Photography who, knowing my addiction to anything living on/with jellyfish, called me over to his find while we were out with

Shot in the wild, using scuba, out over the deep abyss, far from shore off Tulamben, Bali, while drifting at night.

One of the largest and prettiest scaleworms I’ve ever found. There’s a term, “meroplankton” which describes organisms w...
05/27/2026

One of the largest and prettiest scaleworms I’ve ever found. There’s a term, “meroplankton” which describes organisms who will spend only part of their lives, or earlier life stages drifting by with the plankton. This is definitely the case with scaleworms, who, as adults are strictly benthic on the seafloor. But the size of this individual (~6cm) was so big that I can’t help but wonder if it’s on the verge of settling within the next day.
Shot two nights ago, on scuba, while out over the deep abyss, off the coast of Tulamben, Bali with Utama Villa (whom I can’t tag for some reason???)

This tiny larval Indian Halibut (Psettodes erumei) popped up late last night while hunting for Aliens off the coast of T...
05/23/2026

This tiny larval Indian Halibut (Psettodes erumei) popped up late last night while hunting for Aliens off the coast of Tulamben, Bali. A little smaller than a pea. Eventually, it’ll settle onto the seafloor with both eyes on one side of its head, and look much like a flounder, but this little behbeh is likely just a few days post-egg, and has a long way to go before then.

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Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, FL
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