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Pacific Cleaner Shrimp 

The Pacific cleaner shrimp, also known as the scarlet cleaner shrimp, has a special role in its underwater ecosystem! These small shrimp set up cleaning stations where fish will visit to have parasites and dead skin picked from their bodies.

 

Pacific cleaner shrimp are eye-catching in appearance, with a mostly white body accented by bold red stripes and long, white antennae. They grow to about 6 cm (2.5 inches) long and are typically found in shallow waters throughout the Indo-Pacific region, barring the eastern Pacific. Often living in pairs or even sometimes small groups, they establish cleaning stations where a variety of reef fish, including eels, come to be cleaned.

This cleaning behavior benefits both the fish and the shrimp, as the shrimp gets a meal, and the removal of parasites is beneficial to the health of the client fish.  Pacific cleaner shrimp are also known to clean injured fish, which reduces inflammation and potentially the chance of infection. But cleaning isn’t without danger—many of their clients are fish that normally feed on crustaceans like themselves. To lower the risk of being eaten, cleaner shrimp tend to avoid predatory fish or approach them with caution. When they do take the risk, they perform a distinctive leg-rocking dance, a signal that seems to remind their would-be predators to play nice.

 

 

While not much is known about the threats these shrimp face, they are heavily collected for the aquarium trade, which can reduce wild populations. Collecting Pacific cleaner shrimp also can potentially damage their coral reef habitat, which would be detrimental to these crustaceans.

 

 

 Protecting ocean habitat is important to make sure that animals like the Pacific cleaner shrimp can thrive. A clean, healthy, and abundant ocean benefits wildlife around the world. Learn more about how you can get involved in Oceana’s work to safeguard ocean habitat and restore marine biodiversity and abundance here.

 

 

Caves, E.M., Chen, C., & Johnsen, S. (2019). The cleaner shrimp Lysmata amboinensis adjusts its behaviour towards predatory versus non-predatory clients. Biology Letters 15(1) 20190534. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0534 

Fielder, G. C. (1998). Functional, Simultaneous Hermaphroditism in Female-Phase Lysmata amhoinensis (Decapoda: Caridea: Hippolytidae). Pacific Science 52(2), 161-169.  

Fletcher, D.J., Kötter, I., Wunsch, M., & Yasir, I. (1995). Preliminary observations on the reproductive biology of ornamental cleaner prawns Stenopus hispidus Lysmata amboinensis Lysmata debelius. International Zoo Yearbook 34(1), 73-77. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-1090.1995.tb00661.x 

Omar, W.N.A., Arshad, A.B., & Amin, S.M.N. (2020). Embryonic development of marine ornamental shrimp, Lysmata amboinensis (De Man, 1888). Journal of Environmental Biology, 41(5(SI)), 1264-1274. DOI:10.22438/jeb/41/5(SI)/MS_19 

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 

Vaughan, D.B., Grutter, A.S., Ferguson, H.W., Jones, R., & Hutson, K.S. (2018). Cleaner shrimp are true cleaners of injured fish. Marine Biology 165(118). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00227-018-3379-y 

 

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