---
title: Banded Cleaner Shrimp (Stenopus hispidus)
scientific_name: Stenopus hispidus
common_name: Banded Cleaner Shrimp
taxon: Shrimps
published: 2023-12-24T16:02:12.561Z
updated: 2026-08-15T08:33:51.177Z
tags: Banded Cleaner Shrimp, Stenopus hispidus, Shrimps, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/crustaceans/shrimps/banded-cleaner-shrimp
---

# Banded Cleaner Shrimp (*Stenopus hispidus*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Shrimps (*Caridea*)
- **Size:** up to 6 cm
- **Depth:** 1-210 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Nocturnal
- **Rarity:** Common
- **Habitat:** Caves, overhangs and ledges, at fixed cleaning stations
- **Reproduction:** Egg layer, Gonochoric

## How to recognise it

- red and white banded body and legs, three white bands across the tail
- very long white antennae, waved constantly from the entrance of a hole
- almost always in a pair, hanging upside down under a ledge
- length up to 6 cm

Red and white bands and a pair of antennae twice the length of the animal, waving from under a ledge. Six centimeters (2.4 in), and it runs a business.

The antennae are the sign over the door. A cleaner shrimp advertises from a fixed address, fish come to it, and the shrimp works over their skin, gills and mouth for parasites, dead tissue and food scraps. Big predators queue and hold still with their mouths open; the shrimp walks inside and comes out again. The arrangement holds because a cleaner is worth more alive than eaten, and it is one of the clearest cases of an animal trading a service for safety.

They pair for life. A male and a female hold one station together, and pairs are territorial about it - two pairs in one cave will fight until one leaves.

Because it is nocturnal as well, the same ledge that looks empty by day has the pair out in the open at night. Recorded down to 210 m, which for an animal this conspicuous is unexpected.

## Also known as

- **English:** banded coral shrimp, redbanded coral shrimp, spiny shrimp
- **French:** Grande crevette nettoyeuse
- **Italian:** Gambero meccanico a bande, Gambero pulitore a bande
- **German:** Gebänderte Scherengarnele
- **Spanish:** Camarón boxeador
- **Portuguese:** Camarão-palhaço
- **Polish:** krewetka paskowana
- **Czech:** kreveta drsná
- **Japanese:** オトヒメエビ
- **Chinese:** 猬蝦, 蝟蝦（櫻花蝦）
- **Russian:** Поясковая креветка-боксер
- **AF:** Skoonmakergarnaal
- **KO:** 청소새우

## Scientific synonyms

- *Astacus muricatus* Olivier, 1791
- *Cancer (Astacus) longipes* Herbst, 1793
- *Embryocaris stylicauda* Ortmann, 1893
- *Palaemon hispidus* Olivier, 1811
- *Penaeus borealis* Latreille, 1803
- *Squilla groenlandica* Seba, 1759
- *Stenopus tenuirostris var. intermedia* De Man, 1902

## Range

Antigua and Barbuda, Caribbean Sea, Chilean Exclusive Economic Zone (Easter Island), Circumtropical, Comoros, East Africa, FAO fishing area 34, FAO fishing area 47, Fatu Hiva, Gulf of Mexico, Haiti, Hao, Indian Ocean, Lesser Antilles, Madagascar, Makatea, Mare, Marquesas Islands, Mozambique, Mozambique Channel, New Caledonian Exclusive Economic Zone, New Zealand, North Atlantic Ocean, Nuku Hiva, Raraka, Raroia Atoll, Saint Croix, South Africa, South Pacific Ocean, Statia, Tahuata, Trinidad and Tobago, Tuamotu Islands, Ua Pou Island, Venezuela

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/invertebrate/crustaceans/shrimps/banded-cleaner-shrimp)*
*Updated: August 15, 2026*