Blood Red Fire Shrimp
Deep scarlet with white antennae — the most striking cleaner shrimp in the trade.
A brilliant blood-red cleaner shrimp that sets up a cleaning station on the rockwork and picks parasites and dead tissue from willing fish. Bold once settled — it will often climb onto your hand during maintenance. Peaceful and reef safe, though keep only one per small tank to avoid squabbling.
What it needs to thrive
- Lighting
- Any standard reef lighting — no special requirements.
- Flow
- Moderate reef flow with calm resting zones.
- Feeding
- Scavenger — accepts mysis, brine, pellets, and flake; cleans parasites and dead tissue from fish.
- Temperament
- Peaceful and reef safe; shy until established.
- Difficulty
- Beginner
- Ideal Tank Size
- 30 gallons and up, fully cycled.
- Water Parameters
- 76–80°F · salinity 1.024–1.026 SG · pH 8.1–8.4 · 0 ammonia / 0 nitrite · nitrate under 10 ppm
Rockwork with ledges and caves to retreat into. Establishes a fixed cleaning station it returns to daily.
Peaceful and reef safe. Do not keep with aggressive fish; one per 30 gallons is a good rule.
Quarantine, dip, and acclimation
Quarantine
Hold all new fish in a bare-bottom 10–20 gallon QT for a minimum of 4 weeks. Observe for flashing, clamped fins, white spots, or breathing changes. Treat preventatively with copper (1.75–2.5 ppm chelated) or tank-transfer method for ich, plus a praziquantel course for flukes. Invertebrates and corals skip QT but go through dip and observation instead.
Recommended coral dip
For every new coral: a 5–10 minute bath in your reef-safe dip of choice (Bayer Complete, CoralRx, or Reef Primer) following label dosage, followed by two clean saltwater rinses. Inspect plugs and bases for flatworms, pyramid snails, and eggs — remove or refrag onto clean plugs before placing in display.
Acclimation
Float sealed bags in your QT or display for 15 minutes to match temperature. Then drip acclimate at 2–4 drops per second for 45–60 minutes until volume has tripled. Net livestock into the tank — never pour shipping water in. Dim the lights for the first 24 hours to reduce stress.