Red-striped Cleaner Shrimp

Lysmatella prima

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Crustacea
Class: Malacostraca
Order: Decapoda
Family: Lysmatidae
Genus: Lysmatella
Species: Lysmatella prima

The red-striped cleaner shrimp (Lysmatella prima) is a small, translucent shrimp with fine red stripes that lives in crevices on the reef. Its red lines run along the body and legs, and its long antennae are often white.

It grows to around 2-3 cm and belongs to the Lysmatidae, the family that includes the well-known Lysmata cleaner shrimps. It shelters in holes and under ledges, coming out to feed and, like its relatives, may pick at parasites on fish.

In the Philippines this shrimp is found in crevices and under rocks on reefs, and is most often seen on night dives.

Photo: Justin Philbois, CC0 1.0, via iNaturalist