Pacific cleaner shrimp

Lysmata amboinensis · The Pacific cleaner shrimp is a small, striped shrimp that lives on tropical coral reefs and eats parasites off fish.

Also called Scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp, Skunk cleaner shrimp, Scarlet cleaner shrimp, White-banded cleaner shrimp.

Pacific cleaner shrimp
Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0
Pacific cleaner shrimp
Photo: Lonnie Huffman, CC BY 3.0
Pacific cleaner shrimp
Photo: Хомелка, CC BY-SA 3.0

Taxonomy

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumArthropoda
ClassMalacostraca
OrderDecapoda
FamilyLysmatidae
GenusLysmata
SpeciesLysmata amboinensis

Where it lives

Coral reefs from the Red Sea and East Africa to Hawaii.

Fun facts

  • Every Pacific cleaner shrimp starts life as a male, then becomes a hermaphrodite that can act as both male and female.
  • Mated adult shrimp swap roles each time one moults, so the one acting as the female becomes the male next time.
  • Cleaner shrimp do a side-to-side rocking dance to tell passing fish that cleaning services are open.
  • In captivity, if more than two of these shrimp are kept together, one pair may kill the rest.

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Facts and taxonomy adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).