Vanderhorstia mertensi, Mertens' shrimp goby or the slender shrimp goby, is a ray-finned fish species native to the Red Sea, Japan, Papua-New Guinea and the Great Barrier Reef.

Male individuals can reach a length of 11 cm in total.

[2] In 2008 a first specimen was collected in the Mediterranean Sea, in the Gulf of Fethiye, southern Turkey, where it was found on sandy bottoms in the vicinity of beds of sea grass.

[3] It is now common in Israel, Turkey and Greece.

[4] According to the Mediterranean Science Commission this species most likely entered the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal from the Red Sea.