Of more than 3000 species of shrimps and prawns known to date, more than 2500 species belong to the infraorder Caridae. Although carideans comprise the majority of species, only some are abundant enough to be of interest to fisheries. Most of the commercially used shrimps and prawns belong to the infraorder Penaeidea. However, very many carideans are extremely attractive when alive and thus greater value for enthusiasts such as underwater photographers and aquarist. Caridean shrimps are characterised as follows: All five pairs of legs are well developed, the first two pairs are with or without pincers, but the third pair never bears pincers. The second lateral plate(pleuron) of the abdomen is greatly expanded, pear-shaped and overlapping the posterior part of the first pleuron and the anterior part of the third pleuron. Males and females do not have specific copulatory organs on their first pair of abdominal appendages (pleopods) or on the posterior sternites of the thorax, respectively. Females carry the eggs on the abdomen until the larvae hatch. Length: 1,5 cm. Distribution: Indonesia and Philippines to Myanmar, Ryukyus and Great Barrier Reef. Transparent body with a purple line going from head to tailfan and purple antennae. Lives exclusively on bubble coral Plerogyra sp. Length: 3 cm. Distribution: only known from the Indo-West pacific area. Rock shrimps generally live in temperate or cold waters. More of this genus are still undescribed. A transparent body with many white, red and black spots. Rostrum, claws and tailbase are yellow. Length: 6,5 cm. Distribution: the whole Indo- West Pacific. Transparent body with red and white banded legs and blotches on abdominal hump and tail. Around small holes and caves, together with moray eels or passing fish who like a clean up. The photograph shows the shrimp on the jaw of a moray eel. Length: 4,5 cm. Distribution: Philippines, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and S- Australia. Variable in colour, often with ocelli on abdomen. Rostrum nearly a third of the total length, and has numerous ventral teeth. Mostly seen on sea grass, not deeper than -10 m. Length: 2 cm. Distribution: Indo-Pacific: E- Africa to Central Pacific. Commensal on corals and anemones like the Heteractis fam. Mother of pearl coloured ocellus on a yellow to green body. Tail mostly pointing upwards. Male are almost two times smaller than the females. Lives in pairs or groups among their host. Down to -10 m. Length: 3,5 cm. Distribution: from Indonesia to Philippines, Micronesia and Australia. Like with more shrimps, the females are bigger than the males. Lives exclusively on feather stars of various types like Comanthus, Comanthina and Comatula. Often found in pairs. Length: 7,5 cm. Distribution: circumtropical, R. Sea & S- Africa to Hawaii, N. Caledonia, Mexico. A common and the largest boxer cleaning shrimp, red and white banded spiny body and chelipeds. Base of the legs are blue, four white antenna which are 2,5 times longer than the body. Makes dance movements to show fish he is ready to clean. Found in pairs, which stay together for life. Cracks, crevices and underneath corals. Length: 4 cm. Distribution: Philippines! This shrimp was found crawling over a rocky part of a coral reef during night time. A translucent body with a pistachio-green back. Millions of very fine dark-brown points which form patches on different parts of the body, many small white dots all over the body. Length: 4 cm. Distribution: from the Arabian Sea and S- Africa to Japan, Indonesia and Micronesia. Probably the most common hinge-beak shrimp seen by divers. The white inner lines are as bold as the red ones. Lives in crevices and holes, or a car tire like on the left photograph. Also active during the day, especially when in group. Often live together with a larger moray eel. Length: 1,5 cm. Distribution: from the Red Sea to Japan and Hawaii. Very similar to Dasycaris zanzibarica, who has variable humps on head and back. These shrimps mimic the polyps of the black coral Cirripathes, on which it lives. Can be found to -50 m. Length: 2 cm. Distribution: from Maldives to Indonesia, S- Japan, Australia and New Caledonia. Translucent body with numerous fine white dots, black dots and orange spots. Very fine hairs on carapace(body) and abdominal segments, wide rostrum and pointy eyes. Like the harlequin shrimp Hymenocera elegans, it feeds on starfish and brittle-stars. Shallow coastal reefs, hides between sponge or corals. Length: 2,5 cm. Distribution: from Borneo to S- Japan, Philippines, Indonesia and Northern Australia. Transparent body and legs, creamy-white saddle on back. Arms and claws, white dots with some purple areas. Related to P. holthuisi. Lives in association with anemones and mushroom coral. Length: 3,5 cm. Distribution: from E- Africa to Indonesia, Philippines, Marshall Is. and Australia. Transparent with very long rostrum and orange claws. Mostly found during night time, crawling on sponges, sand and sometimes anemones. Down to -25 m. Length: 1,5 cm. Distribution: from Red Sea and E- Africa to entire Indo-Pacific and Gulf of California. They live solitary or in pairs on the sea stars Acanthaster plancki, Linckia multiflora, Asteropsis carinifera, Mithrodia, Choriaster and Culcita sp.. They are commensal and feed on the slime of their host. For it’s size, it has quite a big Rostrum. Mostly seen with a white stripe on the back. Length: 2,5 cm. Distribution: Andaman Sea to the Philippines, Indonesia, Australia and N. Caledonia. Can be found on the coral Catalaphyllia jardinei, Dofleinia armata anemone,Ceriathus spp. and Callechelys snake eels (photograph on the right). Transparent body, claws and tail fan blades are white with purple. White stripe between the eyes, white saddles on the back with red outline. Red to purple legs. Length: 2,5 cm. Distribution: from E- Africa to S- China Sea, Philippines, Indonesia and Australia. Small reddish shrimp with white bars around the carapace and abdominal segments, or one white bar from head to tail. Large blue eyes. Associated with basket stars from the suborder Euryalida, which can be found below -10 m. Length: 4 cm. Distribution: from Philippines to Indonesia, Belau, Marshall Is. and Australia. Transparent to orange body, with a white furry looking head. Chelipeds(front arms) are very long and transparent. Lives on the mushroom coral Heliofungia actiniformis and other anemones from which the abdomen or tail is hidden. Length: 3 cm. Distribution: from the Red Sea to Hawaii. An orange-red body with a white pattern, can go from small dots to an almost completely white body. Mostly found on large nudibranchs like Hexabranchus sanguineus, Dendrodoris tuberculosa and Asteronotus cespitosus but also on sea cucumbers of the genera Stichopus, Bohadschia and Opheodesma. Length: 2,5 cm. Distribution: from E- Africa to Japan, Papua New Guinea and Australia. Very similar to other commensal shrimps, look well to the pattern behind the head and the saddle on the back. This species has a white line and blue to purple dots behind the head, the saddle is white with a brown edge in front and the end. Length: 4 cm. Distribution: from the Red Sea to the S- China Sea, Indonesia, Australia, Marshall Is. A transparent body with large white spots, tail fan is also white with a black and yellow-orange fingernail looking disign (ocelli) at the end. Associated with the sea anemone Cryptodendrum adhaesivum. Length: 1,8 cm. Distribution: from the Western Indian Ocean to Japan, Marshall Is, Fiji and Australia. This commensal shrimp lives solitary or in pairs in comatulid crinoids (feather stars) where it gains protection. The body has the same banded pattern and colour as his host for camouflage. Not much known about the relationship between shrimp and crinoid. Has only few predators. Length: 18 cm. Distribution: from E- Africa to Guam. A wide-spread species which lives in u-shaped burrows, underneath coral or just in sand. The burrows are made of small pieces of rubble. Adult males have a bright green colour, females are more olive green. The strike of this shrimp goes faster than man can see, it’s so powerful it can break bones and glass. Length: 8 cm. Distribution: from the western part of the Indian Ocean to the W- Pacific Ocean. They only have bright colours when they live on black sand, those who live on white sand have white to grey eyes and a paler coloured body. When using their smashers, it only takes three milliseconds to hit a prey. Length: 10 cm. Distribution: Thailand to China, Japan, Philippines, New Caledonia and NW- Australia. From bright orange-red to translucent grey with irregular-sized red patches. White to grey spot or saddle around mid-body. Large blue-green eyes, short rostrum. Mostly night-active, on coral, rubble and sandy areas. Can be found from -4 to -200 m. Length: 3,5 cm. Distribution: from E- Africa to Japan, Philippines, Indonesia and E-Coast of Australia. From shallow coastal waters down to -54 m. Red and translucent horizontal stripes all over the body, red legs. Length: 5 cm. Distribution: from the Indian Ocean to Central Pacific. This beautifull bright-red shrimp has white legs and flagella (antenna). White spots on carapace (body). Mostly found deeper than -10 m, in pairs or small groups. Length: 6 cm. Distribution: from the Red Sea to Philippines, Hawaii and Society Islands. Often in pairs or groups. Mostly associated with bigger reef fish like groupers and moray eels. They remove parasites and infected skin from their customers, they even pick foodrests from in between the teeth! In or near holes, cracks or crevices. Length: 25 cm. Distribution: Indonesia and Philippines. Makes burrows in sand, can be found around coastal areas with very dark sand. From -2 to -30 m. An undescribed species of the Lysiosquillid family. This bright orange mantis shrimp has long eyes like others of it’s species but these are very pointy on top. Length: 25 cm. Distribution: from the East side of the Indian Ocean to Philippines and Indonesia. Very similar to Lysiosquillina maculata but is brown-reddish from colour. Also lives in a burrow which can be 30 cm deep and 12 cm wide. The males have larger peanut shaped eyes and raptorial appendages. Length: 38 cm. Distribution: from the Western Indian Ocean to Hawaii and Galapagos. Makes u-shaped burrows in sand, can be found around sandy coastal areas. From 0 to -20 m. Males have larger eyes and raptorial appendages, they do most of the hunting from the burrow entrance. Normally the burrows are capped with a thin sand membrane, except during night. I mostly find them without, even during the day. Length: 3,5 cm. Distribution: Maldives to Indonesia, S- Japan, E-Coast of Australia, New Caledonia. Creamy-pink to pale brown, brown-edged white line from cheek to tail, dark brown- red and white spots on abdomen. Very long rostrum (snout), translucent legs and antennae. Shallow reefs, on sand and between rocks and sponges. Length: 5 cm. Distribution: Red Sea and E- Africa to Indonesia, Philippines and Northern- Australia. Very similar to Hymenocera picta, who lives more to the E- Pacific. Easy to recognise because of it’s pattern and the big plate-like chelipeds. Lives in intertidal and subtidal coral reefs. Feeds on starfish, which they turn upside down and devour it partly over a few days. Territorial, sometimes stays for years in the same area. Length: 1,5 cm. Distribution: E- Africa & R. Sea to Japan, Papua New Guinea, N. Caledonia and G.B.R. Translucent body with three or four broad white to creamy bars on body, which has the same colour as it’s host. Smooth rostrum, hump on head and abdomen. In pairs on antipatharian black corals. Female twice the size of the male. Lagoons, outer- and coastal reefs, down to -41 m. Length: 6,5 cm. Distribution: from the Red Sea to Japan and Hawaii. A transparent body with red to brown wide bands with dots, banded legs. Resembles the smaller Cinetorhynchus hendersoni. Mostly found near caves, cracks and smaller holes. Males have long and enlarged chelipeds. Length: 2 cm. Distribution: Indonesia and the Philippines. Like most of the ghost shrimps this is an undetermined species. Always standing up, holding itselves with the small hind legs(similar to the praying mantis on land). Mostly seen on hydrozoans, feeds on crustacean larvae, worms, small amphipods and copepods. Length: 5 cm. Distribution: Red Sea and Madagascar to Japan, P.N.G. and New Caledonia. A widespread snapping shrimp, greyish-green with a brown marble pattern. The joints on the legs(Pereiopods) have a differend colour, this can go from white to red. Mostly associated with the Cryptocentrus sp. goby’s. Length: 3 cm. Distribution: from S- Japan to Indonesia and French Polynesia. Red and white banded body and chelipeds (claws), yellow walking legs. Is associated with the gobies Amblyeleotris steinitzi, Stenogobiops nematodes, Tomiyamichthys omi and Flabelligobius spp. On coastal reefs. Length: 5 cm. Distribution: Red Sea & E- Africa to Maldives, Philippines, P.N.G. and New Caledonia. Grey-brown to reddish with thin horizontal lines. White saddle on 1st abdominal segment, and white spots on the rear segments. Lives in symbiosis with a few different gobies. Sand flats around coastal reefs and lagoons.