Peppermint Shrimp and Emerald Crabs, is it really?

ItsAName · Apr 8, 2017

So I went to the LFS and asked for 2 emerald crabs and a peppermint shrimp (wurdenmanni) that eats aiptasia. I didn't check what they gave me before I got home because generally they have a good rep and I figured, how tough could this be :)

Got home and one of my crabs isn't green and the shrimp doesn't look like the pictures I see on the internet. Did they mess up? Or is this like a gender/age appearance thing?

(They are acclimating in the picture)

40B Knasty · Apr 9, 2017

Definitely a peppermint shrimp and an emerald crab. The red one. Not sure. Hopefully just another subspecies of the emerald.
Never heard of an emerald crab eating aiptasia.
Peppermint shrimp people say you have 50/50 shot of them actually eating aiptasia. They also like food other than aiptasia more. So once they like your food source. They don't bother with aiptasia.
From my experience with peppermint shrimp. It was a $5 appetizer for my swissguard basslet. The other is a live somewhere. Basically did nothing to the aiptasia, because of better food sources.

Areseebee · Apr 9, 2017

I think the red one is just a ruby mithrax which is generally fine. I once got one when I ordered an emerald from LA.

wkscott · Apr 9, 2017

+1 on the ruby mithrax. Just a red emerald.

ItsAName · Apr 12, 2017

So the shrimp eat all the aiptasia on the first day, totally lucked out I guess!

ItsAName · Apr 12, 2017

Why does my shrimp look so different from this:

wkscott · Apr 12, 2017

Just less color and this color can vary greatly with peppermints, and all shrimp actually. Sometimes even diet can have an effect on coloration.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, the shrimp did its job. Be grateful, others haven't been so lucky.

LJC6780 · Apr 13, 2017

Mine ate all of mine (only like 3-4 small ones) the first day too.. I haven't seen any more since. Hopefully she will keep her taste for aiptasia and keep it clear!

ItsAName · Apr 13, 2017

wkscott said:
Just less color and this color can vary greatly with peppermints, and all shrimp actually. Sometimes even diet can have an effect on coloration.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, the shrimp did its job. Be grateful, others haven't been so lucky.

I didn't know that about the coloration, cool :)

I'm definitely grateful about him/her/it/shrimpy dude doing it's job!