Cali Kid Corals

SHRIMP!

Euphyllia

Euphyllia

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I have some questions about a couple of different types of shrimp that I wanted to ask before I buy them. To start, when I was at Exotic Aquatics in Antioch I saw a nano tank display with the three cutest little sexy shrimp ever! I wanted some sexy shrimp ever since then. I had some questions about them before I buy some that I wanted to ask. First of all, I've heard that jawfish eat small ornamental shrimp. I think sexy shrimp may be considered ornamental, so could I keep them with a jawfish or will they get eaten? Has anybody ever kept them with a jawfish before? Secondly, my LFS said sexy shrimp need their own anemone and will kick the clownfish out of their anemone. Is this true? My LFS (which is NOT any of our sponsors) normally gives me terrible info on everything I ask about so I wanted to be clear on that. Now I have some questions about peppermint shrimp. I have an aptasia problem in my 34g and want a peppermint shrimp to eat the aptasia. First, will peppermint shrimp get along with sexy shrimp if I happened to get some? Secondly, when I get BTAs, will a peppermint shrimp pick at or eat them since they eat aptasia anemones? My peppermint shrimps I had in my 14g ate my torch coral and hammer coral so I wanted to make sure they will not eat BTAs. If anybody has an idea or answer to my questions please let me know. If you've had experience with these situations, defiantly post here! :)
 
If a fish is known to eat crustaceans, and the shrimp will fit inside it's mouth, than you can safely assume there is a high possibility that the shrimp will be in danger.

In my experience, differing shrimp species don't usually get along. Some can be kept in large systems together if they have enough room to escape each other and they have enough food, but it also depends on the temperament of the shrimp. I had a cleaner that killed and ate all his shrimp tank mates, which included the peppermints and fellow cleaners.

Again, depending on the Peppermint shrimp, some may bother your anemone, and some may not. I have one Peppermint that will attack and eat Ricordea, the other shrimp have not (yet). Some Peppermint eat aiptasia, some don't.

I suggest you do a search and read as much information as you can on the different species you mentioned, and their possible compatibility.
 
Thanks for the info Lyn. I reconsidered adding different types of shrimp and decided to kill the aptasia my self. I took out three small rocks, squished a few, stabbed one with a really sharp object, and there is one big on left. I can't remove that rock because it has part of my rare/valuable zoa collection so I guess I'll just have to stab it.
 
Stabing aptaisa will actuall help spread the problem NOT kill them. If you are stabbing them in your tank get ready for a HUGE aptasia problem.

Peppermint shrimps don't always eat aptasia and so can not be considered a solution to an aptasia problem, however you can do a test and use a small rock with an aptasia on it and put it in a small tank with a peppermint and see if he goes for it. This however does not mean he will not eat out corals or be eaten by other tank mates.
 
Hmm....for the record, squishing/stabbing aiptasia usually serve only to spread them.

They have been dealt with before by:
injecting with boiling water
" lemon juice
fed/injected w/ kalk paste
" various commercial products (aiptasia-X I think, and Joe's juice if it's still available).

Also, FWIW, taking rocks with zoas on them out of the water for a minute or so usually doesn't cause a problem for them at all.

Here's one of many pages re: chemical means or dealing w/ aiptasia. Don't be scared to click the links at the top of the page for more info on a wide variety of other ways.
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marine/inverts/cnidaria/anthozoa/Aiptasia/aipcheminjfaqs.htm
 
OK, if I can't stab it then I guess I could take the rock out, hold it over a container, and blast the aptasia with boiling water then putting the rock back into the tank so the zoas will survive. How does that sound?
 
I would just use Aptasia control or one of the millions of other products they make for safe removal with the rock still in your tank.
 
Just making sure we're talking about L. wurdemanni, and not the camel shrimp, R. durbanensis; the latter is not reef safe :) I for one never had trouble differentiating between the two species, but it is a source of popular confusion for others as well.
I even think I read somewhere a while back about those rogue sexy's that eat corals if not fed sufficiently.

The peppermint and the sexy shrimp may or may not coincide peacefully in small quarters, depending on the amount of hiding places and such -eventually I would think you might run into some predation and bullying, to the sexy shrimps' detriment.

Regarding the sexy shrimp and the clownfish battling over an anemone -in the few cases I've heard of this happening, the clownfish evicted (killed) the sexy shrimp, but I'll admit the species of clownfish involved was never specified. In any case, I have a hard time thinking a sexy shrimp could kill a healthy clownfish.

I have seen many tanks with anemone (BTA's) and peppermint shrimp, without any problems, but this is not to say there can't ever be any compatibility issues. If you ever feed your anemones, you will need to fend off the peppermints (or any shrimps!) because they will try and steal food from the anemones -it is a nuisance, really! :|

If you're looking to get rid of aiptasia, I would just throw two or three peppermints in your 34g and let them do their thing. Be sure not to feed them. Regardless of whether or not they do their intended duties, it should be easy to catch them out in the future. Peppermint shrimp have worked on three separate occasions, in three different tanks for me.
That is my .02. Good luck! :)
 
I doubt I'll get any peppermint shrimp after the last ones ate my hammer coral and torch coral. Besides, one shrimp is enough to scare off from my anemones when I feed them! I shoot a steam of water at him with a turkey baster and he scares away. While on the topic of anemones, I still can't believe my clowns won't even go near one! Maybe they'll come around sooner or later. If sexy shrimp would have a chance of getting killed by the clowns then I view it as a waste of money to buy some. I might get some for my 14g once the hair algae goes away for good. BTW, I took all the rocks out of the 14g and scrubbed them clean from hair algae with a toothbrush. I then redid the tank and rearranged all the corals. I like the rock structure MUCH better now! :D
Are there any shrimp that are reef safe and cool to watch or pretty?
 
If you just took all your rocks out of your 14 and scubed them, I wouldn't put anything in there right now as you can expect to have at the least a mini cycle. Scubbing rocks is basicly killing off the living orginisms, and if you removed the ALL as you say you did, and re-did the rockwork it's likely you also kicked up some stuff in the sand.
 
it just means you'll go though a mini cycle with a potential spike in ammonia/nitrite/nitrate and that you may get an algae bloom which should go away with time.
 
Cleaner shrimp are among the best ornamentals in my experience. Go with a scarlet as Anthony suggested or a peppermint cleaner shrimp.
 
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