---
title: Mertens' Prawn-goby (Vanderhorstia mertensi)
scientific_name: Vanderhorstia mertensi
common_name: Mertens' Prawn-goby
taxon: Gobies
published: 2026-08-08T14:32:23.444Z
updated: 2026-08-08T15:44:55.139Z
tags: Mertens' Prawn-goby, Vanderhorstia mertensi, Gobies, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/gobies/mertens-prawn-goby
---

# Mertens' Prawn-goby (*Vanderhorstia mertensi*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Gobies (*Gobiidae*)
- **Size:** up to 10 cm
- **Depth:** 5-30 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Open sand, sharing a burrow with an alpheid shrimp
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer, Gonochoric

## How to recognise it

- pale body with orange-brown bars and blue spots on the head
- tall first dorsal fin, often held raised
- sits at a burrow mouth with a shrimp working beside it
- length up to 10 cm

A pale sand goby marked with orange-brown bars and fine blue spots about the head, sitting at the mouth of a burrow with its first dorsal fin raised. It reaches about 10 cm (4 in) and is almost never seen away from the hole.

The hole is not its own. A snapping shrimp digs and maintains it, working almost blind, and keeps one antenna in contact with the goby while it pushes spoil out of the entrance. The goby watches, and a flick of its tail sends both animals underground before a predator arrives. Each partner gives up something - the shrimp does the labour, the goby surrenders its independence - and neither does well alone. Approaching one is an exercise in patience: stop at three or four metres, wait, and the shrimp reappears first, testing the water with its antennae before it resumes digging.

## Also known as

- **English:** Mertens' Prawn-goby, Slender Shrimp-goby, Slender Shrimpgoby
- **Arabic:** قوبيون الجمبري النحيل
- **French:** Gobie de Mertens
- **Czech:** hlaváč Mertensův
- **Russian:** Бычок-креветконос Мертенса
- **FI:** timanttiraputokko

---

*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/gobies/mertens-prawn-goby)*
*Updated: August 8, 2026*