Red Spotted Pistol Shrimp (Alpheus rubromaculatus) Breeding Guide

Alpheus rubromaculatus is a goby-partner snapping shrimp from the northern Red Sea. Females carry eggs and larvae are planktonic; no home rearing protocol exists.

Overview

Alpheus rubromaculatus Karplus, Szlep & Tsurnamal, 1981 is a snapping (pistol) shrimp of the family Alpheidae, named in a study of goby–shrimp partner specificity and distribution in the northern Red Sea. Like its relatives it has one enlarged snapping claw and lives in a burrow shared with a goby, which is the basis of its appeal in reef tanks rather than breeding.

Symbiosis Biology

The shrimp excavates and maintains the burrow while the goby serves as lookout. Outside the burrow the shrimp keeps an antenna on the goby; the goby's tail signal warns of danger, and both partners withdraw together. Partner specificity between particular goby and shrimp species has been studied in this Red Sea assemblage.

Spawning & Berried Females

Female alpheids carry fertilised eggs under the abdomen until they hatch. Snapping shrimp typically form lasting pairs and the male guards the female through her vulnerable post-moult phase.

Larval Care

Larvae pass through nauplius, zoea and post-larval stages and drift as plankton before settlement. No whitelisted source documents successful aquarium rearing of this species to settlement.