View Full Version : General Shrimp Info - Is there a 'sticky'?
eastfernstreet
03/27/2013, 11:59 AM
Folks on here talk frequently about their Peppermint shrimp, cleaner shrimp, pistol shrimp, (insert color) shrimp, Mantis shrimp, Sexy shrimp, etc., etc., etc. on the various threads all the time.
Where's a noob supposed to start? My LFS has all sorts of shrimp (and has not yet led me astray) but I have no clue where to start.
Do they all get along with each other?
Does each kind have a specialized 'personality' and function?
Anemone tolerant?
Are some/all reef safe?
If there's a prepared 'sticky' on this, I've simply failed to find it and would appreciate direction. If there is no knowledge base already out there, I'd appreciate any and all information the collected wisdom of RC cares to share.
Thanks!
The worst behaved are the fish-killing Coral Banded.
Peppermints are about the best: they may nip an SPS polyp or two, but only experimentally, and they may eat aiptasia---not guaranteed.
Camel shrimp look like peps, but are not nice.
The cleaners are elegant looking, but belong either in a very small fishless tank for show, or in a tank around 100 gallons, so fish can get away from them. [This also goes for cleaner gobies.] They eat dead skin off fish, but can get too persistent and too frequent and irritate the fish.
Many reef-safe fish eat shrimp: rabbits are bad about this.
Pistols are cute with shrimp gobies, but when they grow, may start killing other fish: I had to take my tank apart to extract one. Fish would turn up with a red spot, and die, from the hammer blows of this little guy.
Mantis are specialty-tank only: like a pistol only will definitely kill fish from the get-go.
Sexy shrimp are tiny little guys. I know nothing bad about them except that big fish eat them and they're expensive.
sk8ter20art
03/27/2013, 12:26 PM
+1 Sk8r
worm5406
03/27/2013, 01:13 PM
Wait are you two related??
+1 Sk8r... (as always)
I had 4 peppermints but one got into the canister, before I moved to a new 180 with sump.
I have even had some of the fry live past hatching and float around the tank.
I have zero aptasia now and they are all over the place espc at night. They stay away from the anemones. and are not skiddish like some people's I know. Mine even come out in the day time.
accordsirh22
03/27/2013, 01:30 PM
i have never had my cleaner shrimp even try to clean any of my fish lol. my peppermints have always been model aiptasia eaters
elrey
03/27/2013, 09:56 PM
can i have 1 peppermint shrimp, 1 scarlet skunk shrimp, and 1 blood red fire shrimp on the same tank? or they will fight?
elrey
03/27/2013, 10:00 PM
never buy a feather duster cluster, if you have a peppermint shrimp, I bought a big cluster of tiny feather dusters and my peppermint kill it and destroy in like 1 day, he just got crazy !
I have no idea how big your tank is. But even if it is quite large, you still have a risk mixing types of shrimp. Peps nip at all sorts of things, even if the others don't.
elrey
03/28/2013, 08:39 AM
I have no idea how big your tank is. But even if it is quite large, you still have a risk mixing types of shrimp. Peps nip at all sorts of things, even if the others don't.
im sorry, my tank is a FOWLR 72g bowfront(with 3 featherdusters), with a 55g sump/refugium
devimik
03/28/2013, 01:55 PM
In my 90g, I have 2 Peppermints and one Skunk Banded. They get along fine - never see them near each other. The Peps ate all the Aiptasia in my tank and I haven't had any since adding them. At first, I thought they would eat my corals and upon putting a Pulsating Xenia in, one Pep quickly attacked it like it would an Aiptasia, so I traded in the Xenia. Currently, I have Frogspawn, Candy Cane, Zoas, Mushrooms, GSPs, Galaxsea and have had no problems with the Peps.
They did go after my Hawaiian Featherdusters after I added them, but they only picked once - I think they realized it wasn't going to be tasty and moved on. Like Sk8r said, they nip at lots of stuff to explore it.
Deinonych
04/17/2013, 09:08 AM
So, I'm planning to get a Scarlet Skunk cleaner shrimp with my next fish order. What is the consensus on the best way to acclimate to my DT? I keep my SG at the same level as LiveAquaria (where I plan to get the shrimp), so should I follow the same acclimation guidelines as described in the sticky in this section? I understand that they are sensitive not only to salinity, but also to temperature.
cloak
04/17/2013, 09:26 AM
Here's a good article.
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-05/as/index.php
Spyderturbo007
04/17/2013, 10:16 AM
I have one cleaner shrimp in my 55g and he doesn't bother anything other than my coral when he steals it's food. :D I've learned to give him a piece of shrimp before I feed the coral to keep him occupied.
The fish don't seem interested in him and he doesn't seem interested in the fish.
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