Shrimp selection Peppermint vs cleaner?

[PrisonCityReef]

Afternoon all,

Looking to pick up one of our crustacean-ey friends here in the next week or two. With my little 14g Biocube, I'm assuming a basic cleaner shrimp is my best bet? The wife liked the peppermint as well. Any big pros / cons to one over the other in a tank my size? Is there a third kind that would be worth considering?

PS - I hate acrylic. Coraline is a *******. I can't wait to get a glass tank running so I can use a razor blade on this stuff. My arm is tired from scrubbing for 3 days and there is lots to go...

 

[fenderguy1]

Biocubes are made of glass. I use a razor on my 29gal biocube every week..... And a cleaner shrimp would be my pick.

 

[MrSquid]

Any peppermint I ever put in my tank was pretty much never seen again after that. Cleaners are pretty social and will even come out and crawl on you when you're in the tank. (this may or may not mean that you yourself have parasites LOL!)

 

[Jhildebrand]

+1. Cleaners are cool to watch. Both can pick on LPS but for the most part won't ever do any damage. I put 8 peps into my 260, and besides the one I found in my 'fuge, I haven't seen one since.

 

[drew.michael]

+1 on the cleaner. more active, i dont see my peps unless i tear the tank down.

 

[nkelr]

cleaners for me too. or both why not. my cleaner occupies the side of one rock on the right of my tank and my peps live under one on the left. i see my peps walk out during feeding time, but thats it. cleaner is always doing his job and is a great +1. even my sailfin stops by to say hi every now and then and gets cleaned. i say 1 cleaner and 2 peps

 

[Jhildebrand]

Blood/fire shrimp my personal favorite. I have two in different tanks and they both have a cleaning station. On actually hops right on the backs of fishes and goes to town.

Golden coral banded also a very beautiful and social option. Mine is a lot smaller and less agressive than regular CBs, but I can't say for sure if it's typical for the species.

Now if I were to get one at this very moment, here is one that rarely is available and is absolutely stunning: Sea Life Inc.

 

[nkelr]

wow those are cool shrimp. arent those also sold as sexy shrimp???? i think jeff has a few sometimes if your ever in aquatic imports. never really get a chance to go in there because he is only open on saturdays now, but i heard him talking about them a while back. +1 on the blood fires. also a very worthwile shrimp. i little more expensive then the cleaners, but they do the job. i would like to get one myself, but im waiting on any major additions until this summer when the 110 goes up.

 

[PrisonCityReef]

That one is pretty neat John! I think we're heading to GB next weekend so I hope to stop in at the shop in your neck of the woods and get something.

Thanks all for the feedback. I appreciate it!!

 

[Jhildebrand]

Sexies are different but a pair is cool as heck. They max at like an inch though, so they get lost in a big tank. I've got a pair in my frag tub. They pretty much live on my mini carpet nems.

Good luck on the shrimp search! I went to Reefs today and they had about ten livestock boxes they were unloading over the lunch hour.

 

[CHALICEKEEPER]

Blood/fire shrimp or cleaner both great love mine

 

[Bri Guy]

I hated my pepps, they kept picking all the food out of my lps, and I mean they would reach into the corals mouth and pick the food out. Never again for me, but others don't seem to have a problem with them.

 

[jlinzmaier]

I like the blood/fire shrimp. They are cleaners and ususally active and out in the open.

I've heard many people complain that peps will eat SPS polyps but I've never had trouble. They are very shy and hide continually, but they also give the advantage of preying on aptasia (unfortunately that's most often a dream as opposed to reality).

I have a coral banded shrimp and it's a PITA. If I don't feed it some krill three times a week it will track down a fish for a meal. They stalk at night and are very effective at eating nealy anthing it can get close to. They don't harm corals as far as I'm aware, but they will definately eat hermits, snails, fish, stars, etc...

Skunk shrimp are great. They are active, cleaners, and very personable just like the blood/fire shrimp.

I've personally had trouble with each and every one of those shrimp very actively picking food right out of the mouths of any sort of coral. If you target feed corals with some mysis or krill then you pretty much need to stand by and fend off the invading shrimp. It helps if you feed the shrimp a piece of krill first but they'll still go looking through the hot spots (frequently spot fed corals) for any food they can dig out of their mouths. I've even had shrimp pry open a corals mouth that was entirely closed and settled after eating some mysis. The shrimp was simply smart enough to know which corals had been fed and waited for me to turn my back. Trust me, it only takes a shrimp a few seconds to clean out all the food that you just spent 15 min carefully target feeding your favorite corals.

I'm actually strongly debating not having shrimp in my 420 just because they are such a nuisance at picking out the taget fed food. I like to taget feed often to maximize coral health and growth.

Jeremy

 

[Bri Guy]

I visually seen my pepp eat polyps out of a pocillipora, picked the flesh clean out of each corallite.

 

[ken_wied]

My cleaner pair tag team my open brain when it's feeding time. When I fend one off, the other is making it's way over and vice versa. I finally cut a 2 liter bottle in half and put it over the brain while it's eating and then STILL have to fend the shrimp off the top of the bottle. My serpent star is another PITA at feeding time. I've also put in about 8 pep's and never saw them after about a week. I have a suspect though...

 

[shananigans]

I have 5 peps and I busted one digging in the middle of my plate coral Saturday. Mine are pretty active especially during feeding time but I used to have a cleaner shrimp and I thought it was much cooler looking. My peps are kind of plain but they did succeed in eradicating every single aptasia, which I had many of!