Shrimps in the reef Tank- What do you have?

[vetteguy53081]

Part of the enjoy of a reef tank, is the many neat inverts and creatures with color. Many are ornamental such as sexy shrimp, some are functional acting as scavengers and some such as cleaner shrimp and even blood red shrimp will set up a cleaning station for tankmates. Harlequins while ornamental will also eat those pesty asterina starfish. Peppermint (some will eat aptasia) and Pistol shrimp - bonds with watchman gobies

What shrimp(s) do you have, why did you choose it and does it stay out in the open or hide all day ?

I currently have a large Blood red and a peppermint which was a hitchhiker, I had two jumbo coral banded and one nice cleaner shrimp until I added a hawkfish which devoured the shrimp in no time flat. Its impossible for me at this time to add any due to having a harlequin Tusk.

 

[SchrutesReefs]

I have a cleaner shrimp, who as we all know, just steals food from my coral. That said, he’s still cool and is always out and about. That’s the only shrimp I’ve attempted to keep due to my love of wrasses.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have a cleaner shrimp, who as we all know, just steals food from my coral. That said, he’s still cool and is always out and about. That’s the only shrimp I’ve attempted to keep due to my love of wrasses.

They always steal food

 

[SchrutesReefs]

Welp, that’s mah favorite Dad joke of the month. Well played.

 

[Buckster]

I have two cleaner shrimp and one blood shrimp. I had several more cleaner shrimp and then they started to disappear. I researched and found out that you can only have two in a tank as they will kill the others. Bummer as I found out the hard way!

 

[EricR]

Skunk cleaner shrimp only,,, just for the fun factor.
Always out and visible.
Kids/guests get a kick out of it being hand fed.

Being so aggressive has its downsides but worth it, in my opinion.

 

[RZGreef]

I have a scarlet cleaner shrimp who is always out and about and accepts hand feedings. I also have a peppermint shrimp that is about half the size of the cleaner, and is usually hiding. Sometimes I won't see it for many days and will only know it's still alive by finding its molt. I was told these two are supposed to be compatible, but anytime the cleaner runs into the peppermint it chases it away almost as if defending its territory. I got them both for their respective abilities to clean up leftovers (both), reduce the possibility of disease (cleaner), and handle aiptasia (peppermint) before it became an issue.

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Randal's pistol, super blue collar dude, him and the goby don't care for each other.
Fire shrimp, he never cleans anything.

So I guess I have one ornamental and one sand sifter.

 

[zheka757]

I tried adding harlequin shrimp, never saw it next day and since. Want to try again but not sure who is predators on them in my tank.

 

[Troylee]

I have a cleaner shrimp that decides to give me heart attack every 2 weeks when I come home and see a molt stuck to my mp40 lol… never seen one molt so fast and he’s a big boy!

 

[vetteguy53081]

I tried adding harlequin shrimp, never saw it next day and since. Want to try again but not sure who is predators on them in my tank.

They hide well but after some time, mine too vanished

 

[zheka757]

They hide well but after some time, mine too vanished

What about if get a mated pair?

 

[workhz]

Fire, cleaner and peppermint. They like the back of the tank and caves. Cleaner comes out more. Fire a little bit and peppermint hardly ever.

 

[A Young Reefer]

I have no success keeping cleaner or fire shrimps they keep ending up in my wavemaker. However, I have had a harlequin for the past 3 months to control my asterina problem and its still going strong.

 

[vetteguy53081]

What about if get a mated pair?

Sometimes helps and sometimes you have 2 missing

 

[Wolf8895]

I have a peppermint I never see. Just hope he's on regular patrol.

 

[PR_nano]

I have a cleaner shrimp which was cool to watch him clean my gobies unfortunately they jump.

My wrasses (pink streak and possum) are terrified of him lol.

I also suspect he had something to do with the peppermint shrimp demise as I caught him chasing off on a few occasions and the peppermint was hiding a lot more before he completely disappeared.

 

[Fritz05]

I have a tiger pistol shrimp / yellow watchman goby pair in both of my tanks plus skunk cleaners (2 in one tank, 1 in the other). I also have a candy cane, which is not bonded to a goby, so I only see it once in about a year. But I see the gravel it pushes out its burrow. I have no problems keeping it with the pistol/goby pair in a 65g. I used to have peppermint shrimp, which were fun but ate SPS corals. Be careful which type you get, you can tell by the markings (https://www.researchgate.net/figure...ging-to-the-genus-Lysmata-from_fig3_319879078). Mine were L. Bogessii (not SPS-safe).

 

[KK's Reef]

I had a trio of sexy shrimp, but my either six-line or pom-pom made tasty snacks out of them. They were purely ornamental but I suppose they scavenged also.

 

[Makara23]

I have these:

Skunk/scarlet cleaner - Very active and always out, but too aggressive at stealing food from fish and coral. Excellent scavenger, also too good, and leaves no food for hermits.

Blood red cleaner - Not too active, always hide, not every entertaining, but doesn't bother or steal food from corals.

Peppermint - Always hides in the day, very active at night, model citizens for 6 months until one day started eating corals. Lost $600 in corals before being able to capture them, and now banished to QT tank.