Thanks. I love them so much I am thinking of buying 15 more of them....maybe then I will see a couple at least, lol.

Hi smarsh, I could be that they are hiding or that you just can't see them... but it would help if you could tell us what fish and inverts you have in the tank with them, so we can rule out predation.

All fish are small and well fed

1 small flame angel
1 percula clown
1 4 line wrasse

Inverts

1 emerald crab
35 blue leg/ red leg hermits
1 sand anemone

Corals
Various mushrooms
various ricordia
zoos
GSP

thanks for any help.

Thats a lot of hermit crabs!
And I'm not sure if the 4-line wrasse would cause any trouble or not. When you first put the shrimp in the tank, did you see aggression from any of the other inhabitants?
Is there another name for the sand anemone?

My sexies are eating very nicely now. They really like the pellet food. The problem is my Nassarius snails like it too. So when I feed them first I have to drop a couple pellets on the side of the tank where the sexies aren't and wait a minute for the snails to get to them. Then I drop some pellets for my sexies on their side of the tank. Well today one of the snails decided that the sexies pellets taste better theirs did so he left his and raced to get to a pellet before one of my sexies. It was a pretty close race but the snail won. Well, the sexy didn't like that very much. He decided to defend what he thought was his. He went after the snail! The snail kept using his shell to knock the sexy away from the pellet. Then the sexy got on top of the snail, and dug under him until he got the pellet! I was so proud of him! It was quite the battle! The best I have seen in my tank so far. I couldn't believe the fight they both put up! These sexy shrimp might be small but they can sure take care of themselves!!!!

Lol, thats a great story, Jennifro! Those sexies sure can kick some butt when they need to.

I agree! Great story. Sexy shrimps are feisty for sure, mine fight with the hermits over food all the time and they always win.

I was sneaking around my tank earlier and caught this pic of my sexies sleeping in the xenias.

Thanks guys! I was just so proud of them

Great picture Fab! I can't wait to get my new camera so I can get some good ones too!

I have the same problem! I have two sexies in my BC14. No fish, just a cleaner shrimp, 2 hermit crabs, 3 nass snail, 3 other type snails, a serpent star, pom pom crab and a bunch of corals including a frogspawn, hammer head, GSP, zoas, couple of small kenya tree frags, feather duster, candy canes, and a small cabbage leather. I wouldn't think any of those would eat or be able to catch the sexies. Any thoughts? Are they just hiding? Do they like a certain type of food that might draw them out?

Well my little pos camera actually worked for me this morning! When I went in to say good morning to my tank all 5 of my sexies we on my pipe organ coral! I was so excited to see them all so close together! It was my first chance to get them all together and my camera actually worked too! Here is my gang!

Awesome pic jenn! They totally look like they're posing for you.

Great pics Aaron and Jenni!

Day 10. Still no signs of my 3 sexy shrimp. I dont think my wrasse could have eaten them. He is too small. All 3 shrimp stayed in a circle on the sand for the first two days. The fish saw them but were not interested. I get up in the middle of the night to try to see them. Any suggestions on getting them to come out?

Try leaing a trap. Lol, I've heard of people doing this when they would get concerned about losing inverts in big tanks

I really don't know what to tell you smarsh.
They could just be hiding out in the rocks. Next time you feed the tank, try dropping in some sinking pellets. Other than that, just keep an eye for them. Look in and under any LPS you may have in the tank, maybe under some mushrooms, on xenias or other tall corals. Thats all I can think of...

It's pretty neat to see how many of us are keeping sexies - I never knew.

Something y'all might want to look into if you're up to the challenge are a couple of websites:
Project DIBS and MOFIB
Both are groups focused on aquaculturing corals and animals. Turns out that the two groups have paired up with each other this year and one of the primary species they are trying to breed and capture info on are Sexy Shrimp.

I am going to be picking up another bunch of these little guys in order to try and breed and grow them out.

If nothing else there are some great pics and links

Thanks for the links! I had noticed the challenge on Project DIBS a few weeks ago, but I don't think I'm up for the challenge of raising the babies.

I just got 3 sexy shrimp for my Biocube 14 and they are totally awesome. I was a little worried about my Pearly Jawfish going after them, so I started out with just one, and then got 2 more later. It is kind of funny, but the jawfish totally ignores them. So far they are in good shape and seem to be eating when I feed the other fish in the tank.

Welcome to the Sexy Club, Necros!
We love pictures, btw!

Lalani's right, we love pictures. The more the better.

so I came home today and had to rescue one of my shrimp from the overflow - I'm surprised the little guy didn't go up the utube- On a good note, it molted while it was trapped.

I have had at least 2 of the 3 shrimp molt now - I saw the molt from one of 'em flying around the tank last week.

Has anyone had their shrimp long enough now to determine molt frequency?

Also, can y'all post your feeding frequencies? I am giving mine a pellet or flake every other day. I'm trying to figure out what to do next weekend as I'm going away for a few days (Fri-Mon). I think they'll be ok by scavenging off the rocks.

Been assembling ATO's for their tank and my others for the better part of the evening. Got 3 of 'em done and will be testing them tomorrow/ next week.

Hey guys... I've been away on skiing vacation and came home today to count all of my sexies right away. They were all there and I was so happy! It seems since I have been away they have taken a liking to hanging out at the very top of the tank. My xenia is not so happy, but the sexies seem to be. Anyways, I got a new camera that can shoot up to 10 feet underwater so I will try and get some pics up of these guys soon.

yankeereefer: My sexies molt every 3 or 4 weeks and I feed them flake food once a day.


Cool! Can't wait to see those pics.

Is there anyone that sells sexy shrimp online? I have been trying to find them for some time now.

I have had my sexies for about 2-4 weeks (got 2 then went back and got 3 more). So far I haven't seen any of them molt. However my hermits seem to clean things up pretty quick so I might just have missed some.

I feed my sexies every other day. I started out with every day but they just didn't go after the pellet so now it is usually every other day. I am going camping for 3 days next week but I figured if I feed them right before I leave they should be just fine.

Yesterday I noticed one of my females acting a bit strange. Instead of arching her tail up over her back like they usually do she was arching her tail under. Then she would use her back legs to sort of dig around in her tail. I saw here do it twice. My thought was maybe she was getting ready to lay eggs or molt? Has anyone else seen this? Any one know what it is about? I am not worried. Just wondering!

phishyaly found this place: http://cgi.ebay.com/SEXY-shrimp-invertebra...1QQcmdZViewItem and she seemed pretty happy with their service. Edit: Link doesn't seem to be working.. Maybe you can PM phishy and she can get you a correct link!


Don't worry! That means she is either getting ready to or already is holding eggs in her tail. If you look really closely, you can see the tiny round shapes through here tail, but sometimes a few will stick out and give you a better look. She will flatten her tail and clean them to make sure they aren't sticking together. If you keep watching, you'll probably catch her swooshing her little tail 'legs' around which means she is making sure the eggs are receiving fresh water and oxygen. I watch mine do this all the time! She'll probably begin producing eggs on a regular basis and they usually hatch at night. You can see them swimming around the water column if you shine them with a flashlight, or under moonlights.

Hi im new

i love sexy shrimp as much as the next person but im getting a 24 gall tank with a pistol shrimp so i cant get any sexy shrimp but im also getting a 5.5 gall so how many sexy shrimp could i fit in a 5.5 please

Why do you say you can't keep sexies because of the pistol? I have two pistol shrimp that hitchhiked on my LR, in my pico, and they never bother the sexies.

In a 5.5gal, you could easily keep 10 or so... They are very small. And they would love the smaller tank.

so it will be safe to keep 1 pistol shrimp and bout 10 sexies in 24 gall

They shouldn't have any problem co-existing, especially with so much available real estate in a tank that size. What else are you planning on keeping in that tank? And as I said before, they would be easier to see in the smaller tank, but its all up to you.

i was thinking of :
-2 highfin goby
-1 pistol shrimp
-2 true perc clownfish
-10 hermets
-4 snails
-lot of coral

i was also thinking of puting a anenomi in but it might attack my coral
im setting a tank up at the same time as my friend who aked you how many sexies he could fit in 24 gall

I have a question for you all. Has anyone here kept their sexies with an actual anemone? I have been thinking of getting a mini-carpet and adding an anemone shrimp or some sexies. Do you all have any input?

ooooohhhhhh i forgot about a firefish in the tabk aswell

I see, so we have a competition on our hands!

Sounds like none of the inhabitants would bother the sexy shrimp, and they do a good job of fending for themselves, so I don't see any problem with your plans. You could add more sexies down the road, but remember to take things slow.

Also, the sexies would love an anemone, but the clownfish would probably take it over and, like you said, the nem could travel around the tank and kill your corals. Thats always a gamble.

Oh yeah, welcome to the addiction!

ok i might get a anenome with the live rock and so if i do il let it live for a while if it starts to move towards the coral il have to inject it to get rid of it i dont want my mushrooms and gsp dieing

Sexies would love an anemone! They even enjoy ricordea mushrooms.


The firefish would be fine too.


If you're talking about a pest anemone like majano or aptasia, its kind of hit or miss if they will host one of those. I'm sure there are a few 'coo coo for coco puff' sexies that would do this, but you're risking a pest anemone infestation for a chance.

ok i might just get a load of coral and get rid of any anenome cuz i dont want anything dieing cuz of amonia and stuff

anyway lalani how have your sexies bin getting on lately

Thanks Lalani! I was hoping that was it. I will start watching to see if the hatch!

BTW have you switched your tank yet? I keep forgetting to ask how it went it you have already done it.

They're good, thanks for asking.


Your post made me think, so I went and checked my sexies.... The female is loaded with eggs again. I'll try and get some macro shots of them, if possible.
And I have not switched tanks yet. I should be going to PetsMart in the next few days. Thats the only place where I can find different size tanks for reasonable prices. Sooo, it shouldn't be long now. Thankfully, because I'm getting tired of having to scrape algae off the acrylic walls with my old drivers license every time I do a water change.

LOL it is funny how we come up with so many "tools" needed for our tanks! My newest one is a set of chop sticks! It was the only way I could get my ric out of the back of my tank when it detached. And it worked very well too! I would love to see pictures of your sexy with eggs. I can't see any sign of eggs yet but I will keep looking and hope to get a picture too.

Let us know how it goes when you do switch tanks. I can't even think of how to start going about that! Good luck!

Speaking of tools, especially for rics, I use one of those pipette things to syphon rics out of the back of my tank. It works pretty good once you get the hang of it.

whofeelsitknowsit - I got my sexies from Christina at piece-of-the-reef.com. She was great! I highly recommend them. They have great prices and shipping practices. She is in FL and didn't ship till 5pm, so my sexies were in transit/bags less than 24hrs.

Looks like I've been missing a good lecture about sexy shrimp reproduction! I had no idea they reproduce so easily.

Thanks! I will check her out.

Yes try ebay....I have been watching her sexy post for a bit from piece-of the reef. I wont but anymore until I see the 3 that have been phantoms in my tank for 2 weeks. Christinas pic on ebay of her facility is awesome. Picture your garage under water and instead of tools on the shelves there is corals. AWESOME!

Chop sticks.... in a reef tank...



SUSHI!!!!

I think I'll be getting the new tank today, so I guess I need to start mixing some fresh SW, just in case.... Not another tank swap.... I'm off my rocker...

Now how did sushi never even enter my mind!! Good luck with the swap! We would love to see pictures when you are done!

Phishyaly, I guess I am still too much of a newb...what is a pipette?

it's like an eyedropper

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/york/pipette.html

I didn't know what it was either until they showed up free with my refractometer... they have many uses... especially for my two year old! lol

Alright people, I seem to have caught a half-assed shot of my female sexy shrimp with eggs. You can kind of see how the sections of her tail separate to expand and fit in all of the eggs. I'll try to get a better shot tomorrow.