Cleaner Shrimp
 
 

Cleaner Shrimp - Lysmata amboinensis

The Pacific cleaner shrimp, Lysmata amboinensis, is an omnivorous shrimp species, which will generally scavenge and eat parasites and dead tissue. The Pacific cleaner shrimp is naturally part of the reef ecosystem, and is widespread in the Red Sea and tropical Indo-Pacific .

It has been observed that fish with parasites may come to "cleaning stations" in the reef. Certain species of fish and several types of cleaner shrimp may assist the fish in large numbers and even go inside the mouth (and then to the gill cavity) without being eaten.