Shrimp Choices

[andywg]

OK, the reef is around 30UK gallons (21x21x18tall) with a 20ish gal sump and 7.5 fuge.

Ideally I would like a couple of shrimp and am quite interested in the banded boxer shrimp (Stenopidus hispidus) and the Blood Shrimp (Lysmata debelius). However the sites I have looked at have said that caution should be used when homing two cleaners together.

Would I be alright to put a pair of these in, or will it one or t'other? (or none?)

Cheers

Andy

 

[Navarre]

If you want blood shrimps then g ofor 3 or more. Any less and you run the risk of not seeing them at all as they are very shy.

Boxer shrimps can be very aggressive and can corner and kill other shrimps and fish. A smallish tank housing a boxer and any other shrimp is risky IMO.

Cleaner shrimps are great, they are communal and not at all shy. I have kept Bloodhsrimps, cleaner shrimps and peppermint shrimps happily together in my tanks.
Bloods ted ot be the more dominant although the cleaners tend to go on show more often.,. they just get out the way when the bloods come

 

[andywg]

Ok, groovy. Thanks Nav.

I was tempted by pepper shrimps, but have read of some being coral eaters (though it is not extremely well documented one way or the other).

So how many shrimp could I go for? I was worried it would be like 1 or 2...

 

[Navarre]

shrimps add very little to the bioload so dont treat them in the same way as fish.

Peppermints are very safe and i have only heard of a couple of stray cases where they have munched corals. its usually the shops that sell camel shrimps/dancing shrimps under theguise as peppermints that cause the problem. these are coral munchers so beware.

 

[andywg]

Groovy.

So, my invert plan was to have something in the way of 15 hermits, 15 snails, around 3 blood shrimp and 4 peppermint shrimp. Possibly a brittle starfish, if the tank will allow such a thing (at some point in the future). Maybe a couple more of the hermits/snails, depending on how things go.

To be entirely honest, I am more interested in the inverts and corals than the fish, so it is nice to know I'm not as limited as I thought.

With the 1 clean-up per gallon, does that apply to the display only, or the system? I plan to have nearly the same volume of the display in sump and fuge.

Andy

 

[Tiggs]

i would have more snails than crabs or you may end up with mostly crabs!

i have about 3/1 snails to crabs and only red hermits as the blues killed my turbos.

as for shrimp i have 4 peps, 2 cleaners and a blood in 110g - if i was you i would go for 2 cleaners and maybe a blood.

cleaners are good for being on show, bloods look good when you see them but peps are bit bland AND you never see them! (i only have them for predation on stuff i didnt want)

 

[Christs_Knight]

um i would probably go with a mantis shrimp lol

 

[andywg]

congratulations on your first bit of trolling. May you find food wherever you post.

 

[Tiggs]

um i would probably go with a mantis shrimp lol

thats not a shrimp.

if someone asked for a clown fish would you suggest Ronald McDonald? If you are gonna be funny.....be accurate.

 

[Riley]

....who stuck a stick up your a**?..He made a mistake get over it

 

[Tiggs]

....who stuck a stick up your a**?..He made a mistake get over it

thanks for that....i as really struggling till you allowed me to get on with my life. you are very helpfull for an american.

 

[Riley]

not american..look at info beside posts. Be accurate before your "trying to be funny"

 

[Navarre]

This isnt helping the thread and i am not keen on closing it as the poster has a genuine interest in the results of the members knowledge. Lets keep it clean and cool everyone or i will edit the thread entirely

I would increase the amount of snails and go with redlegs over blues if you werent sure on which to get. As mentioned, reds are not as aggessive as blues.

As for a brittle star.. good addition to the tank but keep clear of green stars as they are good fish predators. I would not add a brittle star however for a while, allow the tank to settle first and give the tank a chance to create enough food etc for the star to feed upon.

 

[aero]

I had a boxer shrimp and it killed my potters angel and a cleaner shrimp. so i dont think these are a good choice.