Weed Shrimp

Hippolyte australiensis

Systematics: Caridea Family Hippolytidae

Distinguishing Characters:
A long broadly-based blade-like rostrum, with notches only along the underneath, protrudes from the front of the carapace. The two pairs of chelipeds are shorter than the other legs. The body is up to 25 mm long and the abdomen has a strong bend.

Habitat and Distribution:
The weed shrimp lives among algae in pools of the low intertidal zone and down to more than 100 m deep in all of southern Australia.

General Biology:
Weed shrimps take on the colour of the algae in which they live, bright red or green being popular alternate colours. They are probably algal browsers freely moving among their habitat. They usually walk on their legs but can use the strong muscular abdomen and tail fan combined to reverse the shrimp quickly out of danger. This behaviour is common to most caridean shrimps.

Feedback and queries should be sent to the Discovery Centre at Museum Victoria.
Please note, the Discovery Centre can help you only with questions about crustaceans from southeastern Australia. It can not advise on the care of pet hermit crabs or on crustaceans from other regions.