Invertebrates
Skunk Cleaner Shrimp.
The classic cleaner shrimp — red-and-white striped, and bold enough to pick parasites and dead skin right off your fish. Peaceful, reef-safe, and beginner-easy; it'll set up a cleaning station in a 10-gallon-plus reef and even greet your hand.
We keep this species at our Erie store. Come and see it in the tanks, or call (814) 456-9445 and ask what we have in right now.
Sea Cave keeps this species. You will find these in the tanks at 660 East 14th Street in Erie. We never ship live animals.
- Condition
- new
- Fulfillment
- Local pickup — Erie, PA
We never ship fish, coral, or invertebrates — every animal here is one you meet in person. Each one is acclimated and health-checked in-house before it goes out into the display tanks. This is a species we keep, and what is swimming on any given day changes with the deliveries, so please call (814) 456-9445 before you drive in.
Care at a glance
What to know before you take one home.
- Care level
- Beginner
- Temperament
- Peaceful
- Community
- Community safe
- Adult size
- 2.5"
- Min tank size
- 10 gallons
- Diet
- Omnivore
- Scientific name
- Lysmata amboinensis
Good tank mates
A peaceful, reef-safe cleaner shrimp that is welcomed by most community fish and will set up a cleaning station to pick parasites and dead tissue off tangs, wrasses, and other willing fish. It is safe with corals and other peaceful inverts. The main danger is the other way around: keep it away from known shrimp-eaters like large hawkfish, lionfish, big wrasses, triggers, groupers, and predatory crabs, which will hunt it.
Good to know
These shrimp run actual cleaning stations and will climb right into a fish's mouth and gills to pick off parasites, and they are simultaneous hermaphrodites that can pair up to breed.
What is in the tanks and each animal's temperament vary — call (814) 456-9445 for pairing advice.
Good tankmates
Plays well with.
Species we’d keep in the same tank, with why each pairing works. What is in the tanks and each animal’s temperament vary — call (814) 456-9445 for advice on pairing.
New to stocking a tank? Read our guide on which fish live together.
Ultra Black Ice
A peaceful damselfish and not a natural shrimp predator; clownfish commonly coexist with cleaner shrimp in reef tanks and may even visit the shrimp's cleaning station.
Firefish Goby
A peaceful dartfish that is fully reef-safe and will not harm ornamental shrimp; Published care guides explicitly list dartfishes among species that rarely if ever bother cleaner shrimp.
Lyre-tail Anthias
Anthias are small planktivorous reef fish that pose no predation threat to cleaner shrimp; Published care guides list them among species that rarely if ever bother shrimps.
Fire Shrimp
A fellow Lysmata of similar size and peaceful temperament; Aquarium Store Depot specifically names it as a compatible invertebrate cohabitant with the Skunk Cleaner Shrimp.
Banggai Cardinalfish
A peaceful, reef-safe cardinalfish that multiple care sources confirm ignores shrimp and crabs; it focuses on small zooplankton and poses no predation risk to adult cleaner shrimp.
- F
Flasher Wrasse
Published marine shrimp guides specifically name flasher wrasses as fish that rarely if ever bother shrimp. Adult Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (~2 in.) are too large to be considered prey; the 'tiny crustacean' predation risk cited elsewhere applies to micro-fauna, not established Lysmata amboinensis.
Visit the store
660 East 14th Street,
Erie, PA.
Mon–Fri 12–6 · Sat 11–4 · Sun closed. Call ahead on livestock — what's on the floor rotates.