---
title: Zanzibar Urchin Shrimp (Tuleariocaris zanzibarica)
scientific_name: Tuleariocaris zanzibarica
common_name: Zanzibar Urchin Shrimp
taxon: Shrimps
published: 2024-11-27T13:33:21.190Z
updated: 2026-08-19T14:12:11.745Z
tags: Zanzibar Urchin Shrimp, Tuleariocaris zanzibarica, Shrimps, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/crustaceans/shrimps/zanzibar-urchin-shrimp
---

# Zanzibar Urchin Shrimp (*Tuleariocaris zanzibarica*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Shrimps (*Caridea*)
- **Size:** up to 2.2 cm
- **Diet:** Omnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Uncommon
- **Habitat:** Among the spines of long-spined urchins
- **Reproduction:** Brooder

## How to recognise it

- slender body with dark and pale banding along its length
- holds itself parallel to the urchin's spines, not across them
- moves as the spines move
- up to 2.2 cm

It does not just match the spines. It lines up with them.

The shrimp is banded along its length in the same rhythm as a Diadema spine, which is a good start, but the behavior is what completes it: the animal orients its long axis parallel to the spines around it and shifts as they shift, so that from any angle it is one more line in a bundle of lines. Turn crosswise for a second and it becomes a shrimp again immediately.

That kind of postural camouflage - matching the geometry of the background rather than only its color - shows up in razorfish standing on their heads among the same spines, in pipefish lying along a gorgonian branch, and in stick insects on land. It is more effective than pattern alone and it requires the animal to keep working at it.

The host does the rest. A long-spined urchin is a moving cage of venomous needles, and nothing sensible reaches into it.

Two centimeters, banded, and easiest to find with a torch after dark when the urchins have moved out onto open rubble.

## Also known as

- **Japanese:** ガンガゼカクレエビ

## Range

East China Sea, Kenya, Tanzania

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/crustaceans/shrimps/zanzibar-urchin-shrimp)*
*Updated: August 19, 2026*