Pronghorn spiny lobster
Panulirus penicillatus
Illustration: Bloom by Day
A dark green to blue-black spiny lobster speckled with tiny white dots, with pale streaks down the legs and long banded antennae. It lives in surge channels and the broken rock of exposed reef fronts, usually wedged in with only the antennae out.
facts
- habitat
- reef
- size
- ~20 cm, to 40 cm
Bluebird, approximate - not from a cited source
- records
- 6 at 6 spot(s), none of
them in this region
Recorded at Frankland Islands (Cairns), Lady Elliot Island (GBR), Point Lookout (N Stradbroke), Cylinder Beach (N Stradbroke), Amity Point (N Stradbroke — Bay), Dunwich Jetty (N Stradbroke — Bay). A count of occurrence records, not abundance. Records are where someone looked.
when it has been recorded
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A gap means no record in the sample, not absence.
the rule
QLD — None · Combined limit: 5 per person, or 10 per boat (with 2 or more people on board) in total of all tropical rocklobster species
source
· verified 2026-10-10
no NSW rule listed — check before you dive
no closed season recorded for this species — that is not the same as open; check the official page
Rules checked 2026-10-13 against qld.gov.au
Rules change. Check before you dive.
Occurrence data: Atlas of Living Australia (ala.org.au), CC-BY 4.0.
Diver transect counts: Reef Life Survey (reeflifesurvey.com), CC-BY 4.0, supplied via ALA.
Target and protected species: Queensland tidal-water size and possession limits (qld.gov.au) and NSW saltwater bag and size limits plus threatened species lists (dpird.nsw.gov.au).
Habitat and size: Bluebird, approximate, from general knowledge. Not cited. FishBase is CC BY-NC and this app is commercial, so it is not used.
Description written for Bloom. RECORDS ARE WHERE SOMEONE LOOKED, NOT WHERE THE FISH ARE. A record count is a count of records near here and nothing else -- it is not abundance, and a species with few records is not rare. Absence of records is not absence of fish.
Diver transect counts: Reef Life Survey (reeflifesurvey.com), CC-BY 4.0, supplied via ALA.
Target and protected species: Queensland tidal-water size and possession limits (qld.gov.au) and NSW saltwater bag and size limits plus threatened species lists (dpird.nsw.gov.au).
Habitat and size: Bluebird, approximate, from general knowledge. Not cited. FishBase is CC BY-NC and this app is commercial, so it is not used.
Description written for Bloom. RECORDS ARE WHERE SOMEONE LOOKED, NOT WHERE THE FISH ARE. A record count is a count of records near here and nothing else -- it is not abundance, and a species with few records is not rare. Absence of records is not absence of fish.