---
title: Clam-eating Slipper Lobster (Scyllarides tridacnophaga)
scientific_name: Scyllarides tridacnophaga
common_name: Clam-eating Slipper Lobster
taxon: Lobsters
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2026-08-07T11:51:31.089Z
updated: 2026-08-08T21:49:38.193Z
tags: Clam-eating Slipper Lobster, Scyllarides tridacnophaga, Lobsters, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/crustaceans/lobsters/clam-eating-slipper-lobster
---

# Clam-eating Slipper Lobster (*Scyllarides tridacnophaga*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Lobsters (*Achelata*)
- **Size:** up to 30 cm
- **Depth:** 3-40 m
- **Diet:** Molluscivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Rare
- **Habitat:** Reef caves and rubble near giant clams
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- flattened slipper-lobster body, no whip antennae
- sandy brown to reddish, smaller than its relatives
- shovel-shaped plates at the front of the head
- length up to 30 cm

A slipper lobster of about 30 cm (12 in), sandy brown to reddish, smaller and less craggy than the Aesop slipper lobster it shares caves with. The build is the same: a flattened body, no whip antennae, and two shovel-like plates at the front that do the work of digging and bracing.

The name is a description of its diet - tridacnophaga means clam-eater - and it refers to giant clams. The lobster works at the shell edge with its legs until the mantle can be reached, feeding on an animal most predators cannot open at all. It shelters in reef caves and rubble by day, within reach of the clam beds it depends on, from about 3 m to 40 m (10 to 130 ft), and moves at night. It was described in 1967 from material collected in this sea, and remains known from very few records anywhere - both because it is genuinely uncommon and because a slipper lobster deep in a cave looks like every other lump of rock. A photograph of one is worth keeping.

## Also known as

- **English:** clamkiller slipper lobster
- **Hebrew:** כפן הצדפות
- **Portuguese:** Lagosta-sapata-quebra-concha
- **Russian:** Рак-медведка тридакновый
- **TH:** กั้งกระดานหอยมือเสือ

## Range

FAO fishing area 51, FAO fishing area 57, Federal Republic of Somalia, Gulf of Aden, Gulf of Aqaba, Kenya, Red Sea, South Pacific Ocean

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/crustaceans/lobsters/clam-eating-slipper-lobster)*
*Updated: August 8, 2026*