The more ornate of the two prawn-gobies here: a pale body crossed by orange bars, rows of iridescent blue spots along the flank and a yellow wash over the head. About 9 cm (3.5 in), and like its relative it lives at the mouth of a shrimp's burrow.
Both partners are worth watching rather than photographing at once. The shrimp emerges with a load of sand held against its body, dumps it clear of the entrance and reverses back in, all the while touching the goby with an antenna; the goby holds still through this and moves only to feed or to signal danger. Silty sand near reef edges is the habitat, and a diver who settles on the bottom nearby - not on top of them - will see the whole cycle repeat every couple of minutes. What ends the show is a shadow, and the shadow is usually the diver's own.
- pale body crossed by orange bars and rows of blue spots
- yellow wash over the head and the front of the body
- sits low at a burrow entrance in silty sand
- length up to 9 cm
