Pedersen Cleaner Shrimp Identification

Video Transcript

"The marine creature we are going to identify now, is the Pedersen Cleaner Shrimp. The Pedersen Cleaner Shrimp is one of the most industrious animals on the coral reef. It is an active cleaner of fish and advertises its availability by waving its long white antennae back and forth. It's a small shrimp, only about an inch long. But, quite noticeable. Although the body is transparent, it?s covered with purple to lavender spots, which make it stand out. That and those long white antennae it waves around. Pedersen Cleaner Shrimp are usually found living with an anemone. The most common one is the corkscrew anemone. But they can also be found with branch anemone, giant anemone, and nabi anemone. And they are most always found in groups living together around the same anemone. They are very common and found throughout the waters of South Florida, the Bahamas, and the rest of the Caribbean. They are very bold animals and often times when one extends a hand out toward them, you can get a manicure from them. Their diet consists of parasites they remove from the fish they clean. Like lobsters, they are egg-bearers and the females carry the egg mass under their body until the young hatch. The eggs are pink in color and very obvious on the females otherwise clear body. That's the Pedersen Cleaner Shrimp."