This is the new Challenge

The Skunk Cleaner Shrimp (Lysmata Amboinensis) is a beautiful species, and very useful too. As the name suggests, they clean the environmental system from filth, detritus, and parasites. They even clean live fish which -impressively – allow them to perform (without eating them), just like a professional physician would do to a patient.

For this reason, they are loved by aquarium hobbyist who like to add them in their reef aquariums, to keep the corals clean. And for the same reason, they are a critical component of reef ecosystems in nature.

Here is the problem: the Skunk Shrimp is not being bred in captivity, meaning that all of them, sold to hobbyist, come from direct fishing, depriving natural reefs from a crucial element. It is not that people have not tried to breed them, many have tried and failed. They are just very difficult to raise.

So, this is the challenge: to learn how to breed Skunk Cleaner Shrimp. We have a lot of experience raising shrimp so we should be able to face the task.

But it’s a different species – My colleague accurately remarked.

Granted, but still, we have some tricks up out sleeve that we can try. And the prize is attractive: we would not only solve a tricky puzzle, but we would also help one environment that we truly love. I will be posting regularly whatever comes about this new endeavour.