English : Madeira´s shrimp
Portuguese : Camarão limpador da Madeira
Similar species - Lysmata amboinensis
Distribution - Coastal north Atlantic area. It can be found over rocky bottoms and dark caves.
Description – Orange coloration with two red lines separated by a white line. Size up to 2 cm.
Behaviour – In nature, it is a shy species, coming out at night to eat. During the day, from its cleaning station, it is seen cleaning the fish parasites, specially moray eels. In the aquarium, cultured specimens are considerably less shy. It has a particular natural behaviour of cleaning the surrounding area, and is usually found “polishing” the fish around him. Lysmata grabhami is harmless to coral polyps and other invertebrates (reef-safe).
Temperature – Cultured specimens have high temperature tolerance and are suitable for any aquarium, from 30 ºC down to 10 ºC. The ideal temperature profile is from 25 ºC to 28 ºC.
Feeding – It is an omnivore species and feeding is not a major problem. Captive raised specimens can be fed fresh, frozen, pellet or flake food.
Kingdom Animalia
Phylum Arthropoda Subphylum Branchiata (=Diantennata)
Class Crustacea Subclass Malacostraca
Order Decapoda Suborder Natantia
Family Hippolytidae
Genus Lysmata (Risso, 1816)
Species grabhami (Gordon)