peppermint shrimp

Arthropods or shellfish

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Identity card

peppermint shrimp

Scientific name:: Lysmata wurdemanni

Family:: Hippolytidae

Class:: Malacostracés

Phylum:: Arthropode

Year of description:: Gibbes, 1850

IUCN Status:: Not Evaluated

Distribution:: It lives in the Atlantic Ocean, from the Caribbean to Brazil.

Habitat:: As a benthic animal, it lives close to the seabed. It is found between depths of 0 and 37 metres in tropical environment

Size:: This small shrimp measures no more than 5 cm on average.

Diet:: The peppermint shrimp is omnivorous and detritivorous.

This shrimp, bred in Nausicaá, has joined the reef aquariums where it plays an important role.

In fact, it feeds on invasive glass anemones of the genus Aipitasia that can damage corals and plays an important role in the balance of coral reefs.

The peppermint shrimp is omnivorous and detritivorous and belongs to the cleaner shrimp family.

did you know?

Biomimicry: the properties and constituents of shrimp shells have inspired the design of shrilk, a form of inexpensive and biodegradable plastic. Chitin, the element that makes up the shell of shrimp, is used in various fields such as medicine, cosmetics, surgery and wastewater filtration.

Where is the animal to be found?

This shrimp is a benthic animal, which means that it lives close to the seabed. It is found between depths of 0 and 37 metres in tropical environments.

How can it be recognised?

This small shrimp measures no more than 5 cm on average. The peppermint shrimp is a small tropical shrimp with longitudinal red stripes. This quiet and discreet shrimp lives in groups and is mostly active at night.

What is distinctive about it?

To grow, shrimp have to moult: their shell is replaced by a larger one. The peppermint shrimp reproduces at the time of moulting, before its new shell has had time to harden.

Besides growth and breeding, moulting allows the shrimp to replace a damaged limb and to get rid of organisms that might have become attached to its shell.

This shrimp is hermaphroditic, which means that it has both male and female organs. This shrimp is born male and then becomes female but still keeps functional male genitalia.