Plume shrimp/Donald Duck shrimp/Leander sp. shrimp care?

[Tired]

I bought this lil critter at my LFS recently. It was in a tank with a couple of other plume shrimp, a bunch of those tiny transparent cleaner shrimp with the yellow tails, and an assortment of coral frags, and was ignoring all of them.
Does anyone know anything about these? I found one source saying they do best in small groups- should I get more? There's very little online, though a couple of sources say it's reef-safe, and the lack of murdered frags in the shrimp sale tank would seem to indicate that it isn't too interested in corals.

The buttons at the top of the post creator that allow hyperlinks and the like don't work for me, except, ironically, the "more options" button, so here's some links to footage of the critter. Watch the snout!

That rostrum is mobile. It seems to be at least three parts; two outer bits that can fold outward, and a center projection that sorta resembles a three-sided feather. I have absolutely no clue what the rostrum is for; I've only seen it do things like this, fidgeting and whatnot. My guesses are that it's for extra smell receptors, for some sort of social gesturing, or maybe just an odd way to add camouflage.


Such a weird little critter.


Mostly, this is what I see of it. It hides under the rock in my QT tank. Definitely no filter-feeding activities, not that I've seen. It zips out to grab meaty foods, and that's it.


This is what it does if I stare at it too long, or point a phone camera at it. I've never had a shrimp do push-ups at me. Maybe it's trying to look like detritus, or to intimidate me somehow.

 

[Chrisv.]

Well THAT’S neat. I know nothing about these. Tagging along for the ride.

 

[Chrisv.]

I’m just going to tag @ISpeakForTheSeas and get that out of the way.

 

[Tired]

Isn't it just the coolest shrimp? I saw one at the LFS in 2019, but didn't buy it because I could find absolutely no info on them. When I went there the other day and I saw they had three, I had to give one a shot. The guy said it's reef-safe, and this is a LFS that knows better than to put coral-eating animals in coral sale tanks anyway.

 

[Chrisv.]

Isn't it just the coolest shrimp? I saw one at the LFS in 2019, but didn't buy it because I could find absolutely no info on them. When I went there the other day and I saw they had three, I had to give one a shot. The guy said it's reef-safe, and this is a LFS that knows better than to put coral-eating animals in coral sale tanks anyway.

Yes, it’s super cool!

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Leander plumosus (known by like a thousand different common names) - suspected to be cleaner shrimp, so I'd guess the "push ups" are it's way of trying to call you over for cleaning so it can eat. They're typically found in seagrass beds, by sponges, and in shallow reefs. It seems they're largely nocturnal, as they're known for hiding during the day under overhangs and things and then coming out at night to feed. They're noted for being peaceful and reef safe - they don't get very big, so they need tankmates that won't eat them. I've also only seen one source say that they do better in groups, but I'd imagine they would do fine either way (personally, I would keep a group to see if I couldn't get them breeding, but that's just me).

The diet of these guys seems to be under some debate, so I'll just list the info and recommendations I've found below.
___________________________________________
"Feed the Tozeuma Ghost Pipe Shrimp frozen meaty items like brine or mysis shrimp, chopped fish and cockle." - LiveAquaria
"As to diet, live fortified adult brine shrimp and/or small pieces of marine fish, crab, or shrimp flesh fed once daily may suffice, ..." - Salt Corner
"They feed on algae, crustaceans and zooplankton." - What's that Fish

One person who has kept them noted the following (translated from German):
"I have been caring for 2 animals for a year now. I haven't really figured out what they actually eat. During the day they sit hidden in one place - every day in the same place. They are more active at night. They don't let themselves be lured with common food. There is a need for observation here.
My shrimp have no problem with cardinalfish, small wrasses and symbiosis gobies + cracker shrimp." - Reeflex.net

Another source noted the following:
"Its beaklike snout aids in the cleaning of fish gills and mouths. However, the shrimp’s main source of food is small sea worms and larvae." - My Mola
___________________________________________

Based on what I've been able to find, I would assume they'll take most tiny, meaty foods, but given that they're noted as cleaning shrimp, I'd guess they likely would have a preference for small worms like mymola.com suggested. Personally, I'd say to try offering it a variety of items - including some live white worms or black worms (or similar - the smaller the better) - and see what it prefers, but I'd guess a mix of worms and other meaty foods would likely provide the best diet nutritionally (that is just a guess though). For the best results, I'd suggest offering the food after lights out, but if it's popping out to eat already for you, that may not be necessary.

Cool find - let me know how it does!

 

[Tired]

Interesting thought that the push-ups might be a cleaning station behavior. I plan to eventually keep it with some tiny gobies and blennies, and a pair of clownfish, so maybe I'll see it doing the push-ups at them.

I can't imagine how the snout would be useful in cleaning fish, unless it's somehow using the center piece like a comb or brush. I suppose that's... possible?

I'm going to try to train it to take the food I know it likes from a turkey baster and/or tongs, then I can test out other foods. What I offered it today was a chunk of something that looks like krill- just says "plankton" on the frozen food package. It didn't come all the way out of its hiding spot, but it did /almost/ come out, and quite eagerly grabbed up the food that I'd put within reach. Definitely not an out-and-about creature, so hopefully it'll pick a more visible spot once I have it in my actual tank.

Wonder if it might go after small bristleworms, or acoel flatworms. Hopefully it won't eat my micro brittles.

Any guesses on how to sex them? I don't have the supplies or expertise to actually raise any babies, but it might be interesting to keep a pair and see if they have any interesting pair-bond behaviors.

I wonder why you don't see these around. LiveAquaria apparently had some at some point, and I've found a few people asking about them, but I don't see anyone keeping any. I'll grant that it's not an especially pretty creature, but it's really interesting to look at, and it doesn't seem like a difficult animal to keep. Maybe it's unusual for my LFS to have them in stock.

If anyone wants these, I got it at Austin Aqua-Dome. They have 'em on the stock price list they keep upstairs, so I think they have these at least semi-regularly.

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Interesting thought that the push-ups might be a cleaning station behavior. I plan to eventually keep it with some tiny gobies and blennies, and a pair of clownfish, so maybe I'll see it doing the push-ups at them.

I can't imagine how the snout would be useful in cleaning fish, unless it's somehow using the center piece like a comb or brush. I suppose that's... possible?

I'm going to try to train it to take the food I know it likes from a turkey baster and/or tongs, then I can test out other foods. What I offered it today was a chunk of something that looks like krill- just says "plankton" on the frozen food package. It didn't come all the way out of its hiding spot, but it did /almost/ come out, and quite eagerly grabbed up the food that I'd put within reach. Definitely not an out-and-about creature, so hopefully it'll pick a more visible spot once I have it in my actual tank.

Wonder if it might go after small bristleworms, or acoel flatworms. Hopefully it won't eat my micro brittles.

Any guesses on how to sex them? I don't have the supplies or expertise to actually raise any babies, but it might be interesting to keep a pair and see if they have any interesting pair-bond behaviors.

I wonder why you don't see these around. LiveAquaria apparently had some at some point, and I've found a few people asking about them, but I don't see anyone keeping any. I'll grant that it's not an especially pretty creature, but it's really interesting to look at, and it doesn't seem like a difficult animal to keep. Maybe it's unusual for my LFS to have them in stock.

If anyone wants these, I got it at Austin Aqua-Dome. They have 'em on the stock price list they keep upstairs, so I think they have these at least semi-regularly.

Sorry - no ideas how to sex them. I'd be curious to learn about the pairing behaviors and to see if it displays cleaning behaviors to other fish too - let me know if you find out.

 

[Tired]

Will do! I can't guarantee that this lil guy won't keel over dead tomorrow, but I'll update if/when anything interesting happens. Maybe I can get one singular photo of it outside the nook at some point.

 

[runcis]

Looks fantastic. From what I saw at Youtube (videos of underwater of the Andaman Sea, Lembeh Strait, etc.), they don't swim in groups, I always see them "swinging" in the water alone, under the rocks.
I think I will order one for myself

 

[Tired]

I think you're right that the push-up behavior is to invite cleaning clients. I got a better video, and you can see it's doing an odd motion with its claws that kinda looks like it's cleaning something. It also put its antennae towards my finger when I touched the side of the tank, and it didn't retreat or do faster push-ups.
(Apparently it wasn't very hungry.)

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Remembered this thread today - how’s the shrimp doing?

 

[Tired]

Well, I did a large water change on my tank a couple weeks ago with 1.008 salinity water, because I mixed up the reef tank water bucket with the guppy tank water bucket. Don't do tank maintenance on brainfog days- I killed basically every crustacean in the tank, aside from one hermit crab. I /did/ learn that urchins which seem to be dead from low salinity may revive if you put them back in the proper amount of salt, so, that might be useful.

Up until that, it was doing great! I'm still not sure what the plume is for. I also suspect they eat something that's commonly found in reef tanks, whether detritus or bristleworms or something else, because there were a couple periods of time where it hid for long enough that I didn't feed it at all. No fish in the tank, so it wasn't scavenging their food, and it wouldn't have lived that long if it wasn't eating. I'd agree with the person who said they don't know what these eat, though mine definitely took frozen food quite happily. Never saw it bother anything, never saw any damage. I had fewer collonista snails and micro brittles, but that might have been normal population fluctuations- I wouldn't want to conclusively say this shrimp ate any of them.

I'm going to try and get one or two more, if I can. Very neat little shrimp, and I do want to try them in with fish.

 

[Stomatopods17]

Bummer. Was cool to see though!

I remember reading somewhere they bury in deep sand beds, was that behavior ever seen?

 

[Tired]

I never saw it burrow, no, and I would honestly be pretty surprised if it could. That snout seems unwieldy. Admittedly, I can't guarantee it didn't burrow- I just never saw it.

I'll report back if I get any more. I'm in the process of upgrading to a 45gal, so I might try a few, since they can split up and ignore each other if they don't actually want to group up.

 

[AC1211]

It reminds me of the shovelnose catfish you see on the freshwater side sometimes.

 

[fishnchip]

Glad I found this thread. I picked one of these guys up a few days ago and have just been watching it to figure out what it’s like. I’ve got him in a reef tank with a pair of clownfish and blue coral banded shrimp and so far everyone’s been getting along. I do see him doing the push up movements and has just been hanging in a cave during the day.

Interested to hear if anyone has kept them in groups