41st edition of Marine Life monthly post. Marine Life post published on the 19th of the month. It aims to share information about the marine life species and to promote their conservation. All images in this post are taken by Indah Susanti unless stated otherwise.

Flamboyant crustaceans who feed on sea star have striking colors on their shells. They may be small but fierce predators in attacking animals like the starfish that maybe hundreds times bigger than their body. The shrimp eats the sea star slowly, depending on the size of the sea star. The eating process may take up to two weeks. Imagine if we human eats that slow.. hah!

The female size is bigger than the male and usually they can be found as a pair. As a pair, the shrimps are territorial and staying in one place for long time. Due to its attractive colors, the shrimp is popular for aquarium’s collectors, thus advised not to disclose the dive site whenever scuba divers found the shrimps to avoid illegal fishing for aquarium collectors.

Their natural habitat is in Indo-Pacific like in Indonesia and Hawai’i. First time I saw them was when we were diving in Big Island (Hawai’i, USA). Pretty shrimps, aren’t they?