Cleaner shrimp Stenopus sp..
Photo Phil Parr

Cleaner shrimp Stenopus sp. in more detail.
Photo Phil Parr
Cleaner shrimp Stenopus sp. at Long Beach.
This is a highly unusual sighting. While we know it is possible for tropical and subtropical fish to reach Cape Town waters, but that a shrimp like this can make it seems highly unlikely. It is possible that it was released by somebody with a tropical aquarium, but the cost of such a shrimp makes that unlikely too - if it had been mine I would have sold it!
The exact species of cleaner shrimp is hard to tell, as many of the genus Stenopus look similar, but it is possible that it is a banded boxer shrimp, S. hispidus, one of the more common species around.
References:
Crustacea - Guide of the World. H. Debelius, 2001.
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