The tiny sand shrimp is a scavenger, common in intertidal pools and rocky coasts along the west coast of Southern Africa and the southern Cape.
These shrimps have transparent bodies, except for thin black vertical stripes and small yellow spots at their joints. Their internal organs are easily visible. Above the eyes is a protruding part of the carapace called the rostrum, which has jagged saw-like edges.
Sand shrimps are “carideans” which, unlike cleaner shrimps, are not hermaphrodites. Females lay hundreds of thousands of eggs, which hatch and rapidly grow through several planktonic phases. The juvenile shrimp migrate to estuaries where they mature, eventually migrating to the sandy ocean floor in large groups.
The sand shrimp has not yet been assessed for the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.