Alpheus djiboutensis (Djibouti snapping shrimp)
White to yellow undercolor with breed green to brown transverse banding. Wide white to bright yellow band at the start of the abdomen.
Unevaluated by the IUCN Red list, but considered fairly common in tropical waters. They are easy to scare off, so not very often seen.
They live in the Red Sea, Indian Ocean and Indo-Pacific, in the shallows and in burrows (usually together with gobies), 1-20 meters.
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Up to 5cm.
It feeds on detritus and small shrimps.
The snapping shrimps owes its name to the sound it produces when rapidly closing its claws. The claws produce a shockwave and a loud bang, which can stun unlucky prey. The shrimp shares a burrow with several species of shrimpgoby. The goby provides provides protection since the shrimp has bad sight, and the shrimp in turns does the maintenance on the burrow, providing shelter for the goby. This form of symbiotic relation is called mutualism (both species benefit from the relation).
