Shrimps and hermit crabs for marine aquarium

Shrimp and hermit crabs in marine aquariums are usually much more colorful and intensely colored than their freshwater cousins. Marine shrimp and marine hermit crabs play an important role in the biology of a reef aquarium as scavengers and algae eaters . Especially the beautifully colored and bizarrely shaped marine shrimps are very useful in the aquarium, and also the hermit crabs in their snail shells are not only cute, but also valuable components of the biotope in the reef as algae eaters and scavengers.

As a cleaning troop the small crustaceans are unbeaten. The marine shrimp Lysmata wurdemanni, also known as Wurdemann's shrimp, even eats the annoying glass lice, a real nuisance in marine aquariums and almost impossible to control by mechanical means.

In a conventional reef aquarium, neither the marine shrimps nor the hermit crabs usually reproduce, but with a little skill they can be partly bred in a separate aquarium, so that ambitious marine aquarists do not have to rely on wild catches.

Here in the Garnelio online store you can buy small shrimp and hermit crabs like Thor amboiensis, the Sexy Shrimp, or the tiny Reef Hermit Crab and the barely larger Bluefin Hermit Crab, which already fit in nano marine aquariums around 60 liters. These two hermit crabs are excellent algae eaters and keep the reef clean.

However, we also offer large shrimp for large seawater aqu ariums, such as the imposing red and white banded scissor shrimp, which can reach a body length of 10 cm and should be kept with a maximum of one conspecific of the opposite sex in a larger seawater aquarium of at least 100 liters. It even eats bristle worms and thus makes itself useful in the reef. If (larger) fish are in the reef aquarium, the scissor shrimp performs its role as a cleaner shrimp - it frees the fish that like to keep still from parasites and mounts and cleans their skin.

The white banded cleaner shrimp also sets beautiful highlights in the reef. It also devotedly takes care of the body care of the saltwater fish in the reef aquarium and even cleans their teeth.

The saltwater cardinal shrimp is also a cleaner shrimp that cares for the mucous membrane of the fish in the saltwater aquarium, but it also takes care of stains and coatings in the saltwater aquarium and generally clears away leftover fish food.