Banded Coral Shrimp
Stenopus hispidus
Common Prawn
Palaemon serratus
About
The common prawn is one of the easiest shrimp to spot along rocky shores, its almost see-through body giving away little until it darts for cover in a crevice.
- Length
- 11 cm
- Depth
- up to 40 m
How to tell it apart
Many shrimp species share this pinkish colouring. Look closely at the tip of the upward-curving rostrum: on the common prawn it splits into two points, unlike the plain tip of most similar shrimp.
Appearance
This shrimp has a translucent, pinkish-brown body with reddish speckled patterns and grows up to 11cm long. A long spike called a rostrum projects forward from between its eyes and curves upward, ending in a small forked tip.
Habitat
It lives in groups in rocky crevices in shallow water down to about 40m, across the Atlantic coast from Denmark to Mauritania, and in the Mediterranean and Black Seas.
Did you know?
Some individuals carry a visible bulge in the shell over their gills. It is caused by a parasitic isopod, a small crustacean called Bopyrus squillarum, living inside them.
Log it in Into the Blue
Describe what you saw and we name it, then keep every species you find in your Oceandex.
