Humpback prawn
A small reddish penaeid prawn with a strongly arched back, buried in sand by day and active on the surface at night.
A penaeid prawn of up to 6.6 cm in males and 7.5 cm in females. The body is reddish to orange-brown with paler patches, and the back is strongly arched, which gives the common name. The eyes are large and reflect green in a torch beam. Several species of Metapenaeopsis have a covering of short fine hairs over the shell that makes it look like velvet.
Penaeid prawns belong to a different group of decapods from the carideans, which include most of the small shrimps seen on reefs. Female carideans carry their eggs under the abdomen until they hatch. Penaeids such as this one release their eggs into the water. The humpback prawn is also separated from the reef shrimps by its habitat, since it lives on open sand and not on hosts or in crevices.
It lives on muddy and sandy bottoms and on sand near coral, from 1 m to 200 m. During the day it stays buried and only its eyes are above the sand. It emerges at night to feed and is usually alone. It is fished in parts of its range. Records run from Japan to Australia and New Caledonia.
Where to find:
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.
