Breeding the Pacific Cleaner Shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis)

Lysmata amboinensis is a protandric simultaneous hermaphrodite that spawns readily in pairs, but its planktonic larvae take months to settle, making home rearing very demanding.

Overview

Lysmata amboinensis is a reef-dwelling cleaner shrimp of the Indo-Pacific and Red Sea, found at depths of roughly 5–40 m. It is one of the few marine ornamental shrimp that spawns regularly in aquaria, although raising the larvae to settlement is the real bottleneck for hobbyist breeders.

Sexing

The species is a protandric simultaneous hermaphrodite: individuals first mature functioning as males and then become functional hermaphrodites that have no pure female form. Because every mature adult can act as both sexes, two animals kept together can reciprocally fertilise each other, so visual sexing is not required to form a breeding pair.

Conditioning

A stable reef environment with consistent salinity, temperature around 24–26 °C and pH 8.1–8.4 keeps adults in spawning condition. Well-fed, settled pairs spawn repeatedly, with eggs produced roughly every two weeks and even more frequently in small groups.

Spawning & Berried Females

Mating involves little ritual. The pair alternates moult timing; after one shrimp moults, the apparent sexual roles reverse, with one acting as male and the other brooding the clutch. A spawning yields about 200–500 eggs that are first attached to the pleopods and greenish in colour, later swelling and lightening toward silver before hatching.

Larval Care

Hatched larvae enter a long free-swimming planktonic phase that can last around 5–6 months and pass through roughly 14 identified zoeal stages, growing to about 2 cm before metamorphosis. Rearing reports describe feeding both rotifers (Brachionus) and Artemia during the first week, with co-cultured phytoplankton in the larval tank; later stages take enriched Artemia and finely pureed seafoods.

Common Challenges

Despite frequent spawning, the species remains difficult to culture: the prolonged larval period means the vast majority of larvae die before settling, and most aquarium specimens are still wild-caught. Maintaining clean planktonic-food cultures over many months is the main obstacle for home breeders.