Marine life  /  Amphipods  /  Skeleton shrimp
Reviewed 2026-09-05
Species entry

Skeleton shrimp

Caprella scaura

Not a shrimp at all, and it stands on hydroids swaying like a stick insect.

Size
To 3 cm
Depth
1–25 m
Habitat
Hydroids, algae and rope
Active
Day and night
Range
Indo-Pacific
Rarity
Lembeh Strait
3 stars of 5, a good week should turn one up
Skeleton shrimp, Caprella scaura

An amphipod rather than a shrimp, to about 3 cm, with a body reduced almost to a thread, two pairs of grasping claws at the front and hook-like rear legs that grip the substrate. Translucent white, brown or green, and so thin that a colony is usually noticed as movement rather than as animals. Males are much the larger and carry a long spine on the head; females brood the young in a ventral pouch and the juveniles ride on the mother.

Grips hydroids, algae, rope, netting and discarded fishing line with the rear legs and holds the body upright and free, swaying to catch particles from the current with the feeding appendages, then strikes at passing plankton with the claws. Colonies of dozens on a single hydroid are normal, and a rope hanging off a jetty is often solid with them. Recorded from the shallows to about 25 m. It is at the limit of what a standard macro lens resolves, and it is one of the subjects that a wet dioptre is actually for.

Where to find:

LocationRarity Best monthsDepthHabitat
Lembeh Strait Indonesia editorial estimate
3 stars of 5, a good week should turn one up
Year-round
1–25 m
Hydroids, algae and rope

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.

Related species

SP
gammarid amphipod
16:10
Gammarid amphipod
Amphipoda