Aligns itself along a sea whip and holds still, with a long serrated rostrum doing the rest.
An extremely elongate hippolytid shrimp of about 5 cm, most of which is body and rostrum rather than bulk. The rostrum is long, straight and toothed along its lower edge, which is where both the English name and the specific name come from. Colour varies with the host — translucent white, yellow, orange, red or brown, usually with a fine dark line running the length of the body and often with paler banding that continues the pattern of the branch it is on. The abdomen is sharply bent, the typical “broken back” profile of the family.
Lives on sea whips, black coral and gorgonians, aligned lengthwise along a branch with the rostrum extending it, and moves only when pressed. On a whip with several shrimps they will all lie in the same orientation. Recorded from about 10 to 40 m. The practical difficulty is depth of field: the animal is long and usually not perpendicular to the camera, so a shot taken along the branch rather than across it is the one that works. It shifts around to the far side of the whip when approached from one side and stops as soon as the diver stops.
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.