Skunk Cleaner Shrimp

Care at a glance

Overview

A peaceful, active cleaner shrimp that genuinely picks parasites and dead tissue off fish at a set cleaning station. It tolerates its own kind well and is often kept in pairs or small groups. Keep it away from predators such as large hawkfish, triggers, lionfish, and some large wrasses that will eat it. Reef safe with corals and other inverts.

In the wild

Found across the Indo-Pacific and Red Sea on coral reefs, usually near overhangs, caves, and rockwork where it sets up a cleaning station. In the aquarium it wants plenty of live rock with ledges and crevices to perch on and retreat into, and stable, fully cycled reef water. It roams the rockwork by day, which is unusual for a shrimp, and does not hide the way many other species do.

Good to know

Lysmata amboinensis is a simultaneous hermaphrodite, meaning every mature individual carries both male and female reproductive tissue, so any two shrimp can pair and both can carry eggs. This is why they are safe to keep in groups without aggression over sex. The larvae are planktonic and pass through many long molt stages, which is what makes captive breeding so difficult.

Did you know

Fish actively line up and hold still at its cleaning station, sometimes even opening their mouths and gills so the shrimp can pick inside, a real cross-species cooperation you can watch play out in the tank.

Related species

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