Keeping peppermint shrimp in Australia? Share your experiences!

[Crabs+Shrimps-69]

Peppermint shrimp are a popular invert for their ability to eat invasive aiptasia anemones.
Unfortunately, the best species of peppermint shrimp (Lysmata Wurdemanni) isn't available in Australia due to the only native species of peppermint shrimp being Lysmata Vittata and biosecurity laws preventing other species from being imported.

However, it is hard to find information and personal experiences with Lysmata Vittata specifically, so if you've kept these shrimp I would like YOU to share your experience with them.

Did they eat aiptasia?
Did they your coral?
And anything else you think is important to note.

(note: some Australian stores may claim to sell Lysmata Wurdemanni, but because they aren't native to Australia the shrimp are just Lysmata Vittata. It is possible to visually identify Lysmata Wurdemanni from other peppermint shrimp so if you don't believe me you could look up what they're supposed to look like to see if the shrimp claimed to be Lysmata Wurdemanni actually are that species)

 

[cdemoss01]

My peppermint shrimp ate my aiptasia and pineapples (another pest) they did not eat any of my corals.

 

[Crabs+Shrimps-69]

My peppermint shrimp ate my aiptasia and pineapples (another pest) they did not eat any of my corals.

Were these shrimp ordered from Australia or the species Lysmata Vittata by any chance?
Interesting they eat pineapple sponges, I've never heard that happen before!

 

[cdemoss01]

Were these shrimp ordered from Australia or the species Lysmata Vittata by any chance?
Interesting they eat pineapple sponges, I've never heard that happen before!

No sadley not, should've specified I got these from America, I'm sure they will be the same though.

 

[Reeficheep]

I got two recently before I added fish to the tank to control a couple of aptasia's on my live rock. Pretty sure they weren't Lysmata Vittata though... looking at the chart I'm almost they're A (Lysmata wurdemanni) but not sure how they got around the import law if so.

They did eat all the aptasia and I haven't seen any babies since (I also used Aptasia X at the same time to smother an absolute monster), and I suspect they also ate the few brown hydroids I had. HOWEVER, as I hadn't been feeding the tank much without the fish the larger shrimp ate a head of my bam-bams... contemplated removing them but since then they've been exemplary citizens. The new clownfish and therefore food supply seems to have muted the coral craving.

Hope this helps!

 

[Crabs+Shrimps-69]

No sadley not, should've specified I got these from America, I'm sure they will be the same though.

Probably similar, but some species of peppermint shrimp are more likely to eat aiptasia and less likely to eat corals than others.

 

[Crabs+Shrimps-69]

I got two recently before I added fish to the tank to control a couple of aptasia's on my live rock. Pretty sure they weren't Lysmata Vittata though... looking at the chart I'm almost they're A (Lysmata wurdemanni) but not sure how they got around the import law if so.

They did eat all the aptasia and I haven't seen any babies since (I also used Aptasia X at the same time to smother an absolute monster), and I suspect they also ate the few brown hydroids I had. HOWEVER, as I hadn't been feeding the tank much without the fish the larger shrimp ate a head of my bam-bams... contemplated removing them but since then they've been exemplary citizens. The new clownfish and therefore food supply seems to have muted the coral craving.

Hope this helps!

Thanks for sharing your experience!
Now that I think about it, Lysmata Wurdemanni and Lysmata Vittata do look similar, so it's possible they are Lysmata Vittata anyway.
Glad to see they ate aiptasia from your experience, hopefully others had similar results!
I'll keep the feeding part in mind, perhaps that's also part of the reason other species have been reported to eat corals.

 

[JonoH]

I had about 10 peppermints in my tank when it was first established.

Cannot confirm wether they eat Aptasia or not, as i have never seen any in my tank...this could mean they do...or not! lol

Havent seen any in ages though now, reckon my 6 line may have done them all in.

 

[Crabs+Shrimps-69]

I had about 10 peppermints in my tank when it was first established.

Cannot confirm wether they eat Aptasia or not, as i have never seen any in my tank...this could mean they do...or not! lol

Havent seen any in ages though now, reckon my 6 line may have done them all in.

Thanks for sharing!
I would be rather surprised if there never was aiptasia in your tank to begin with, must have been the shrimp unless there is another aiptasia eater in your tank.
Did you suspect they were munching on your corals or have you seen little/no evidence of that behaviour?

 

[JonoH]

Thanks for sharing!
I would be rather surprised if there never was aiptasia in your tank to begin with, must have been the shrimp unless there is another aiptasia eater in your tank.
Did you suspect they were munching on your corals or have you seen little/no evidence of that behaviour?

I never saw them munching on any coral...but i also stopped randomly losing hammers and torches after they all dissappeared.

Could be a link...

 

[Crabs+Shrimps-69]

I never saw them munching on any coral...but i also stopped randomly losing hammers and torches after they all dissappeared.

Could be a link...

I'll keep that in mind

 

[GreenWave-Aquatics]

Hey everyone, not in Australia, but bit of a peppermint shrimp nerd, and it’s great to see this discussion — I’ve been breeding Lysmata boggessi in the UK for a while now, primarily as biological control for Aiptasia, and I’ve dived quite deeply into the scientific literature, and thought I’d share a bit from that experience.

There’s often confusion around peppermint shrimp species, and it’s understandable — for a long time, Lysmata wurdemanni was a name used for what we now know is actually a complex of several visually similar species. These include boggessi, ankeri, rathbunae, and others — and while wurdemanni does still exist as a valid species, it now refers to a much more specific population than the name used to imply.

Out of the group, boggessi has consistently shown the most reliable behaviour in terms of Aiptasia control, both in scientific studies and in hobbiest reports (even if they didn’t realise that was the species because it was still labelled Wurdemanni”. They’re less prone to coral-nipping and seem to be highly motivated predators — especially when not overfed.

I did put together a short guide on the species history and identification on my website if anyone is interested.

But in general, I’m interested to hear more experiences with Lysmata vittata, since it’s not been studied much in this context — so first-hand hobbyist reports are especially valuable.

 

[Crabs+Shrimps-69]

Hey everyone, not in Australia, but bit of a peppermint shrimp nerd, and it’s great to see this discussion — I’ve been breeding Lysmata boggessi in the UK for a while now, primarily as biological control for Aiptasia, and I’ve dived quite deeply into the scientific literature, and thought I’d share a bit from that experience.

There’s often confusion around peppermint shrimp species, and it’s understandable — for a long time, Lysmata wurdemanni was a name used for what we now know is actually a complex of several visually similar species. These include boggessi, ankeri, rathbunae, and others — and while wurdemanni does still exist as a valid species, it now refers to a much more specific population than the name used to imply.

Out of the group, boggessi has consistently shown the most reliable behaviour in terms of Aiptasia control, both in scientific studies and in hobbiest reports (even if they didn’t realise that was the species because it was still labelled Wurdemanni”. They’re less prone to coral-nipping and seem to be highly motivated predators — especially when not overfed.

I did put together a short guide on the species history and identification on my website if anyone is interested.

But in general, I’m interested to hear more experiences with Lysmata vittata, since it’s not been studied much in this context — so first-hand hobbyist reports are especially valuable.

Interesting to hear Lysmata Bogessi are the best ones since I've mostly heard the opposite, but everyone has different experiences.
Do you have a thread or article on your experiences breeding peppermint because if you do I would be interested in reading it!

 

[bluemon]

One interesting thing about vittata is that they apparently act as cleaner shrimps!

I don’t think I’ve heard/seen the other species doing that but I could be wrong

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-32293-6

 

[Crabs+Shrimps-69]

One interesting thing about vittata is that they apparently act as cleaner shrimps!

I don’t think I’ve heard/seen the other species doing that but I could be wrong

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-32293-6

This is quite surprising to me since they don't have the long arms most cleaner shrimp have.
What's impressive too is that the results from this article show Lysmata Vittata being the best cleaner shrimp.
@Reeficheep and @JonoH did you experience this behaviour with your peppermints?

 

[JonoH]

This is quite surprising to me since they don't have the long arms most cleaner shrimp have.
What's impressive too is that the results from this article show Lysmata Vittata being the best cleaner shrimp.
@Reeficheep and @JonoH did you experience this behaviour with your peppermints?

Mine never acted as cleaner shrimps, they would hide during the daylight, and only come out when it was dark.

My red line cleaner shrimp on the other hand would take food our of your fingers and crawl up your arms!

 

[Reeficheep]

Haven't had mine (especially with fish) for ages, but as far as I can see no cleaning behaviour so far!
Agree with them mostly hiding during daylight hours... however, if I feed a bit extra the larger one (and occasionally the smaller) will scavenge around the bottom for pellets and sometimes even swim upside down on the surface to get some extra.

https://www.globalseafood.org/advocate/parasite-control-in-aquaculture-takes-teamwork/https://enviroliteracy.org/animals/will-peppermint-shrimp-clean-fish/
After a quick google search I saw similar articles (above), several of which suggest they can clean fish, but mostly prefer easier forms of food. An interesting thing is they seem to eat eggs and the early stage of parasites as well... this may be why we don't see much (or any) 'cleaning' action go on, as they consume parasites before they enter a phase that can infect or attach to fish as hosts (and also because they are likely too lazy).

(This is all purely speculation, as a disclaimer ;))

Hope this helps!

 

[strich]

Hey everyone, not in Australia, but bit of a peppermint shrimp nerd, and it’s great to see this discussion — I’ve been breeding Lysmata boggessi in the UK for a while now, primarily as biological control for Aiptasia, and I’ve dived quite deeply into the scientific literature, and thought I’d share a bit from that experience.

Do you have any guides or information about the breeding process you've undertaken? I don't even have shrimp but I recently went down a huge rabbithole purely out of curiosity about the challenges of breeding Lysmata Amboinensis - The redline cleaner shrimp - and how extremely challenging it has been for scientists let alone hobbyists. I understand other shrimp species can be easier, but I'm fascinated even so that saltwater shrimp breeding seems to be a relatively unrefined or even unknown skill in the hobby.

 

[GreenWave-Aquatics]

Interesting to hear Lysmata Bogessi are the best ones since I've mostly heard the opposite, but everyone has different experiences.
Do you have a thread or article on your experiences breeding peppermint because if you do I would be interested in reading it!

Really? what did you hear ? That they don’t eat aiptasia or that they nip corals?

All of the scientific studies say that boggessi is the most reliable for aiptasia control -Lysmata Ankeri during testing showed a slightly higher consumption rate (5.3 per day, compared with 4.2) individually, but are more variable, I.e more individuals completely ignored aiptasia compared to Boggessi.

In labratory trials, both the Hati species and Lysmata boggessi consumed Aiptasia pallida, with L. ankeri showing a slightly higher individual consumption rate. However, L. boggessi demonstrated more consist feeding behaviour, particularly in group settings and when preying on larger anemones.

(They refer to them in the paper as “Hati” species and “Florida coast” species, but in a later paper the same authors formally classified them, and confirmed the species they previously tested.)

Paper where they were tested — Rhyne, A.L., Lin, J., & Deal, K.J. (2004). Biological control of aquarium pest anemone Aiptasia pallida by peppermint shrimp Lysmata sp. (Risso). Journal of Shellfish Research, 23(1), 227–230

Paper where Wurdemani was reclassified —
Rhyne , A.L. & Lin, J. (2006).
“A western Atlantic peppermint shrimp complex: redescription of Lysmata wurdemanni, description of four new species, and remarks on Lysmata rathbunae.”

With regards to a breeding info, I might do a write up. It took me a little while to dial in my protocols, but now I can yield 150ish per batch. I discovered all sorts of things during my 8 months of trial and error!

 

[Crabs+Shrimps-69]

Really? what did you hear ? That they don’t eat aiptasia or that they nip corals?

All of the scientific studies say that boggessi is the most reliable for aiptasia control -Lysmata Ankeri during testing showed a slightly higher consumption rate (5.3 per day, compared with 4.2) individually, but are more variable, I.e more individuals completely ignored aiptasia compared to Boggessi.

In labratory trials, both the Hati species and Lysmata boggessi consumed Aiptasia pallida, with L. ankeri showing a slightly higher individual consumption rate. However, L. boggessi demonstrated more consist feeding behaviour, particularly in group settings and when preying on larger anemones.

(They refer to them in the paper as “Hati” species and “Florida coast” species, but in a later paper the same authors formally classified them, and confirmed the species they previously tested.)

Paper where they were tested — Rhyne, A.L., Lin, J., & Deal, K.J. (2004). Biological control of aquarium pest anemone Aiptasia pallida by peppermint shrimp Lysmata sp. (Risso). Journal of Shellfish Research, 23(1), 227–230

Paper where Wurdemani was reclassified —
Rhyne , A.L. & Lin, J. (2006).
“A western Atlantic peppermint shrimp complex: redescription of Lysmata wurdemanni, description of four new species, and remarks on Lysmata rathbunae.”

With regards to a breeding info, I might do a write up. It took me a little while to dial in my protocols, but now I can yield 150ish per batch. I discovered all sorts of things during my 8 months of trial and error!

Mostly this forum: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/t...ful-you-might-not-have-the-real-thing.833498/