Please help identify

[Peter Dietz]

Can anyone tell me what this is. It doesnt look like a normal.pistol shrimp or a bullseye pistol shrimp but he snaps. I think he might have killed my goby that i added the other day but idk.

 

[hdsoftail1065]

We have a few folks on the team that can help with the identification. #reefsquad

 

[Flippers4pups]

Drawing blanks here.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Potentially dumb question but are we sure that isnt a small lobster?

 

[Dr. Reef Verified Sponsor]

I am with @Crabs McJones on this one. Looks like a small lobster

 

[ChiSox Rabbitfish]

I agree lobster came to mind

 

[ChiSox Rabbitfish]

Debelius reef lobster maybe

 

[tupes]

Guess I'll be the odd ball and say it's a type of pistol looking at its claws as the left on is tiney and the right looks to be average. Lobsters have symmetrical claws as do crawfish far as I know. Being from Louisiana I've definitely seen my fair share of both

Maybe with the lights on we can get a better idea.

 

[Ron Reefman]

IMHO that is a small lobster, maybe some kind of reef lobster. It doesn't look like any kind of shrimp I've ever seen.

 

[Bunnyspit]

Could it be a mantis shrimp?

 

[Bongo Shrimp]

@tupes is right in that it's a species of pistol shrimp. It has the classic morphology including the enlarged claw with small pincer at the end, but narrowing down the species may be difficult as some have multiple color forms and the taxonomy is somewhat messy.