Pederson's Cleaner Shrimp

Care at a glance

Overview

A peaceful, hardy, beneficial cleaner and scavenger that is fully reef safe with corals and other inverts. It does well singly or in small groups and pairs naturally with a host anemone. Sensitive to copper and many medications, so treat elsewhere and never dose the display. Keep away from predators that eat small shrimp, and provide iodine-stable water for clean molts.

In the wild

A small Caribbean and Western Atlantic shrimp that lives in association with sea anemones such as the corkscrew and condy anemones, using the anemone as a protected home base. It is nearly transparent with violet and blue markings and long white antennae. In the aquarium it wants live rock with caves plus ideally a host anemone, and it will set up a cleaning station near its home.

Good to know

Ancylomenes pedersoni is a genuine cleaner shrimp: field studies confirm it removes parasites and dead tissue from reef fish, and its anemone host gains nitrogen from the shrimp's waste while receiving free cleanings, a two-way relationship closer to mutualism than the sexy shrimp's commensalism. It is a Caribbean ecological counterpart to the Indo-Pacific Lysmata cleaners.

Did you know

It is the Caribbean's answer to the Pacific cleaner shrimp, running an anemone-based cleaning station where reef fish queue up to be groomed, and it will even try to clean the aquarist's hand.

Related species

• 

  White-Spot Anemone Shrimp

  Periclimenes brevicarpalis

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

• 

  Sexy Shrimp

  Thor amboinensis

  1.2 in (3 cm)5 gal (20 L)75–81°F (24–27°C)
• Randall's Pistol Shrimp

  Alpheus randalli

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

• 

  Marble Shrimp

  Saron marmoratus

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