TankBud

Skunk cleaner shrimp

Lysmata amboinensis

Also known as Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp, Pacific Cleaner Shrimp, Red Skunk Cleaner Shrimp, Ambon Cleaner Shrimp

SaltwaterShrimp

Skunk cleaner shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis)
Хомелка · CC BY-SA 3.0

Care at a glance

Temperature
73–81°F
23–27°C
pH
8.1–8.4
Adult size
2.4 in
6 cm
Minimum tank
20 gal
75 L
Temperament
Peaceful
Social behavior
Social
Swim level
Bottom
Difficulty
Beginner
Breeding
Hard
Rarity
Very common
Reef safe
Reef safe
Family
Lysmatidae
Origin
Indo-Pacific and Red Sea

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.

Symbiotic relationships

Cleaner shrimp, cleaner gobies and their clients

A cleaner holds a station on the reef and advertises it: cleaner shrimp wave their long white antennae and rock from side to side, cleaner wrasses swim a bobbing dance. Fish arrive and pose, head up or head down with fins spread, and hold still while the cleaner picks off parasitic isopods, dead skin and loose scales, working into the mouth and under the gill covers of fish that could swallow it in one bite. The client leaves with fewer parasites and the cleaner eats a meal it never had to hunt. Reef fish queue for it, and a busy station is visited hundreds of times a day.

The skunk cleaner shrimp is the one that does this reliably in an aquarium: it sets up on a rock ledge, and tank fish, tangs and wrasses especially, learn to stop by within days. The fire shrimp cleans too but hides more and works at dusk. Pederson's cleaner shrimp does the same job from the tentacles of its anemone. The neon goby and its relatives are small, hardy cleaners for tanks that cannot take a shrimp. The cleaner wrasses are the difficult ones: many never take prepared food, and both are marked difficult here. None of them will cure an outbreak of ich; they pick off some parasites and keep a healthy fish tidier, and that is the honest claim. Keep every cleaner away from predators such as large hawkfish, triggers, lionfish and big wrasses.

Every symbiotic relationship in the catalog

Weekly picks

Tank mates

Skunk cleaner shrimp is a peaceful, social species that keeps to the bottom. These picks share a community profile with it, are safe together in both directions, and overlap on water type, temperature and pH.

Check the full mix in the stocking calculator

Common questions

What size tank does a Skunk cleaner shrimp need?

A Skunk cleaner shrimp needs at least 20 gal (75 L). It spends most of its time in the bottom.

What temperature and pH does a Skunk cleaner shrimp need?

A Skunk cleaner shrimp is comfortable at 73–81°F (23–27°C) with a pH of 8.1–8.4.

How big does a Skunk cleaner shrimp get?

An adult Skunk cleaner shrimp reaches about 2.4 in (6 cm).

Related species