Flower Coral Shrimp

Hamopontonia corallicola

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Crustacea
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Family: Palaemonidae
Genus: Hamopontonia
Species: Hamopontonia corallicola

The flower coral shrimp (Hamopontonia corallicola) is a tiny, translucent shrimp that lives among the long polyps of flower pot and other large-polyp stony corals. Its glassy body is lightly marked with white and coloured spots that help it disappear between the swaying tentacles.

Usually under 1.5 cm long, it holds onto its host with specially hooked walking legs, a feature that gives the genus its name. It feeds on mucus and particles trapped by the coral and seldom leaves the safety of its polyps.

In the Philippines this shrimp is found on Goniopora and similar corals on reef slopes. It is easily overlooked, but a slow look among the polyps with a torch can reveal one or more of these little shrimps.