Malacostracans · Amphipoda · Caprellidae

Ghost Shrimp

Caprella linearis

Not Evaluated

It has not yet been assessed against the IUCN criteria. See full glossary

An amphipod with a thread-like body and reduced legs, known as a skeleton shrimp for its resemblance to a dry twig. It anchors itself by its hind legs to hydroids and algae and stays upright and motionless, claws folded like a mantis, waiting for the current to bring it particles and minute prey.

Size

1 cm – 2.2 cm

Diet

Omnivore

Combines animal and plant food depending on availability.

Social structure

Colony

Lives in large concentrations, often for breeding reasons.

Sighting difficulty

Unknown

OceanOmnivore Colonial Ocean Crustacean

16countries 39parks 44dive sites

Fun facts

Its twig-like outline and its habit of swaying with the current camouflage it completely among the hydroids where it lives.
The females carry their eggs in a ventral pouch and look after the young for the first few days.
It is called a skeleton shrimp for its thread-like, almost transparent body: it grips the substrate with its hind legs and stands upright, swaying in the current like a twig.
That appearance is camouflage. On colonies of the soft coral known as dead man's fingers it reaches enormous densities and is mistaken for the polyps.
The males are larger than the females and detect their pheromones with the antennae; once paired, the male rides on the female or holds her until she moults.
In the North Sea it competes with the invasive Caprella mutica: the invader dominates on artificial and floating substrates and the native on fixed, deeper ones.