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
Egg carrier · Hard
Rarity
Very common
Reef safe
Reef safe
Family
Lysmatidae
Origin
Indo-Pacific and Red Sea

Overview

The skunk cleaner shrimp is a peaceful, active cleaner for a reef tank. It is easy to keep and a good pick for a beginner.

Did you know

A skunk cleaner shrimp's cleaning station draws fish that line up and hold still. Some even open their mouths and gills so the shrimp can pick inside them.

Caring for the skunk cleaner shrimp

Give skunk cleaner shrimp a tank of at least 20 gal (75 L) with plenty of live rock. Ledges and crevices give them places to perch and to retreat into. They roam the rockwork by day and do not hide the way many other shrimp do.

Keep the reef water stable and fully cycled, at 73 to 81°F (23 to 27°C) and a pH of 8.1 to 8.4. In the tank, the shrimp picks parasites and dead tissue off fish at its cleaning station.

Skunk cleaner shrimp are peaceful and reef safe with corals and other invertebrates. They tolerate their own kind well, so you can keep them in pairs or small groups. Keep them away from predators that will eat them, such as large hawkfish, triggers, lionfish and some large wrasses.

Every mature shrimp is a simultaneous hermaphrodite, carrying both male and female reproductive tissue. Any two shrimp can pair, and both can carry eggs, so groups do not fight over sex. The larvae are planktonic and pass through many long molt stages, which makes captive breeding difficult.

Good to know

The skunk cleaner shrimp, Lysmata amboinensis, belongs to the family Lysmatidae. It is also sold as the scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp, the Pacific cleaner shrimp or the Ambon cleaner shrimp.

In the wild

Skunk cleaner shrimp live on coral reefs across the Indo-Pacific and the Red Sea. Each one usually settles near an overhang, cave or patch of rockwork and sets up a cleaning station there.

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

The 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).

How does a skunk cleaner shrimp breed?

Skunk cleaner shrimp are simultaneous hermaphrodites, so any two can pair and both can carry eggs. The planktonic larvae pass through many long molt stages, which makes captive breeding difficult.

Related species