Coral Banded Shrimp

Care at a glance

Overview

Hardy and long-lived but territorial and semi-aggressive. It will fight and often kill other coral banded shrimp unless they are a bonded pair, and it can harass or catch small fish, other shrimp, and small inverts with its large claws. Best kept one per tank (or a proven pair) and not with small delicate shrimp. It picks at and walks over corals looking for food but does not eat healthy coral tissue.

In the wild

A circumtropical reef shrimp found worldwide in caves, crevices, and under ledges, where it holds a territory and waves its long white antennae and large banded claws. In the aquarium it wants a cave or overhang it can claim as home base and stays mostly hidden by day, coming out to scavenge at night. It does not roam openly the way skunk cleaners do.

Good to know

Stenopus hispidus is a boxer shrimp in a different family (Stenopodidae) from the Lysmata cleaners, distinguished by three pairs of walking legs and a very large third pair of claws. Unlike Lysmata it is not a simultaneous hermaphrodite: it has separate sexes and forms bonded male-female pairs that defend a shared territory, which is why unpaired individuals fight.

Did you know

Its oversized banded claws and boxer-like posture are a bluff and a weapon at once: it will square up to fish and other shrimp far larger than itself to defend its cave.

Related species

• 

  Blue / Purple Coral Banded Shrimp

  Stenopus tenuirostris

  1.6 in (4 cm)11 gal (40 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Gold Coral Banded Shrimp

  Stenopus scutellatus

  1.6 in (4 cm)11 gal (40 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Fire Shrimp

  Lysmata debelius

  2.4 in (6 cm)20 gal (75 L)72–79°F (22–26°C)

• 

  Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

  Lysmata amboinensis

  2.4 in (6 cm)20 gal (75 L)73–81°F (23–27°C)

• 

  Camel / Dancing Shrimp

  Rhynchocinetes durbanensis

  2 in (5 cm)16 gal (60 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)

• 

  Harlequin Shrimp

  Hymenocera picta

  2 in (5 cm)11 gal (40 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)