I've got Sexys in with my pistol shrimp and no problem. It's a 15g though. here is one dancing on my new GSP

i was wondering how many i could put in my 55g. i have a goby/pistol pair now an emrald and a bunch of snails. i plan on adding two clownfish and then one other fish either a mandarin or some other colorful slow moving fish. plan on having a fire shrimp and mostly soft corals and lps. i have a small acan frag in there now. my tank has been running for two months now. nitrates ammonia nitrites all 0, sg 1.025 temp 78. i figured they would stay out in the open as long as i have peacful inhabitants with them. any advice would be greatly appreciated.

to NR!
How many could you keep in a 55gal tank? As many as you want/can afford really. I'd say a good rule of thumb is one shrimp per gallon max.

thanks for the quick response. i can really put that many in there thats crazy. do you need to add them all at once or can you add them in increments of like 5 or 7 until they get where you want them to be. they really are cool little guys. i have a 10g too that i was thinking about setting up as a species only tank but i don't really have the money to get lights skimmer etc for a whole other system at this time.

Keep in mind that sexy shrimp are tiny, usually growing no larger than one inch (if they straighten their tails). Also, depending on where you buy them, they can cost anywhere between $5 and $25.
Yes, you can add them in increments. They don't all need to be added at once.

thanks i'm just doing some research now. i wanted to get some harlequin shrimp but that wasn't well received by other people who look at my tank. i figure these one are cool looking and don't eat the so called "cute" starfish.

could i put some sexies into my refugium. i have a hob one that holds probably 5g or so of water. there is some rock rubble a dsb and some chaeto in their. i was't sure if they would do well in there since their isn't anything to host. i figured it would be smaller than my 55g so i'd be able to see them more.

Yeah, they don't need to host anything.

So here's my (limited) experience with sexy shrimp. When I was in the process of setting up my new 28 nanocube, I saw the most darling sexy shrimp at a fish store a few hours away and knewww I had to have a few once my tank was ready. Three months into my nano, I asked a guy at my LFS to pick me up 3 of them. I took them home today (there were only 2 left) and I was so excited to get them into my tank. After 2 hours of acclimation, I dropped them into my tank and to my devastation, my blue/green chromis ate one. I had no choice but to watch him choke on the poor shrimp for 15 minutes until he finally spit out the remains . So the remaining sexy is at my boyfriends house until I can catch that *(&^ chromis.

i've got a sexy shrimp in my pico that is always on my encrusting gorgonian (looks like gsp) it switches between that and the pulsing xenia! great shrimp to watch!

im trying to find a trio for my pico! but i dont wanna go thru liveaquaria cuz it costs so dang much for shipping....if anyone sees any in socal lemme know

Aww, that sucks.

to NR.com, btw.

My trio of sexies is doing surprisingly well in the 40br. They stay on the right side of the tank, amongst the rics, gsp, and mini nems and seem to be doing well. Haven't noticed any trouble at all.

I have 3 in my 5.5g pico - only one has started eating pellets while they all scavenge the rocks and not corals yet - mostly paly's though so I think it's safe. - one's still smaller and I'm waiting for his molt then I suspect I'll have 2 males and a female - might get 2 more.

Pasadena Tropical Fish and Pacific Reef in Fountain Valley has em, they both sell them for $10 bucks each.

Got a 10 gallon working on its cycle, then its sexy shrimp time. If i can find any that is...
Damsels arent going to mess with them are they? Im going to put two yellow tailed ones in there after awhile.

Whoa whoa whoa. Do not put two yellow tail damsels in a 10gal. Don't even put one damsel in there unless you plan on keeping it, they are notoriously difficult to catch and mean. I'm not sure how well they get along with sexies.. personally, I wouldn't chance it.

mean? I've never had a mean damsel, maybe I was just lucky then. I have an occ clownfish that's a total meany though. They are a bit harder to catch then most, but have had no problem with a trap to get them out. I was just going to get two small ones for a month or two then return them. They are cheap if they dont make it. (after my tank cycle is done of course)

I will take it on your word that they can be mean, and will not purchase any.
I guess I will just buy a single firefish, even though they are extremely over priced near me.
Firefish and sexies ok?

My other half got me these litttle guys on Tuesday. She's getting me a third one tomorrow. They're extremely cute. I was really surprised by their strength; I didn't realize they were strong enough to carry their food balls up the rock. I'm really happy she got them for me. I just wish they would dance in the front of the tank and not in the back.

Awesome thread!! Thanks Lalani, and El Fabo' for the great info (and anyone else who provided)

I actually wanted some of these guys when I first set up my tank, and was scared away... Now, I decided to order three... I want to put them in a 29G tank, where I have an RBTA hosted by my clowns, but also a nice sized (softball sized) frogspawn/hammer mix colony that would be awesome for them right off the top of my rock work... Do u guys think they will be fine? In case not, I have a newer 10 gallon, but I would love them in my main display..

Wish my LFS's had these local, so I don't have to pay shipping! lol!!

I got 1 sexy in my Biocube... am waiting to find 2 more. The single sexy is extremely brave, it roams around and isn't afraid of my huge fire shrimp or mated cleaner shrimp.

u have a cleaner and a fire in the same tank... do they get along???

Yeah, they ignore each other. The fire shrimp is king of the tank, but only stays in the shade and rarely comes fully out in the open. The cleaners just ignore him.

Very cool info.. I didn't know that!

My sexies will be here tomorrow! I ordered three.

So I have a ten filled with zoos and mushrooms. It also has a couple pistol shrimp and 3 highfin gobies (Yasha, yellow rose and Tangoropa sp?) Does anyone see adding half a dozen sexies a problem? I just dont want my pistol shrimp to make a meal of them...

Hmmm, I'm not 100% sure, but I doubt the pistol shrimp would cause the sexies any trouble.

this may have been asked before but,what do you think about sexies and peppermint shrimp together?

I have a 20 with 4 somewhat larger sexies,I've had them about a year

so they run the tank,but I need some peppermint's to do away with aptasia bastids

After a few days of looking for my new sexy I finally found him on my frogspawn.

My three sexies chillin' with my new squamosa.

It'll be alright. I have a fire shrimp and 2 cleaners with my sexy's in a Biocube 29. I had a peppermint but it somehow made it's way to the sump....

Hey all, was browsing this thread and had a few questions. I have a nano cube 12gDX, thread for it is in my sig, and my initial goal for complete stocking plans would be A few lps, mostly softies perhaps a portion for a ric and mushroom rug, yellow watchmen goby + pistol shrimp combo, a clown fish, and 3-5 sexy shrimps, and possibly later a clam. First Q: Do you all think this stocking plan is to much for my tank? My other would be how many sexy shrimps could I include with this stocking plan? I want as much sexy shrimp as possible as I love watching this small life more than the bigger. My tank will have been setup for about a month, although the orginal owner had it a little under a year and the liverock was in water the entire move. I figured in 1 week I will add a cuc of snails primarily from reefcleaners.org. After 2-3 weeks if the tanks looking good I will move the corals that were in the tank before into mine from a friends tank. The corals are a frogspawn, orange rics, zoas, and a yuma ric, don't know if I should only add some of these first and wait. However 1 month later after the corals I would like to add the sexys. Would it be safe to add the sexy shrimp so early and what would be a suitiable number? The goby shrimp and pistol pair were the last things I planned to introduce into the tank. Thanks and lovin this hobby!

pistol shrimps might pose a danger to your sexies..

How many Sexy Shrimps do you guys think can live in my 7G Cube?
Livestocks right now is
3 Nasarrius Snail
3 Blue Legged Hermit
3 Pom Pom Crab
1 Peppermint Shrimp
and 2 Turbo Snail.

I do a good water change every week to keep the nutrient from building up too much.

i mite be getting sum sexyz for my 8" cube

just about any substrate is ok with these guys right? im gonna get a jbj 3 gallon pico and i havent decieded between black sand or crushed coral. also, how heavy are these guys on the bioload, would i be able to get 3 shrimp, a couple snails, and maybe a hermit crab or two (and maybe a small goby but that might really be pushing it) or is that gonna be too much for a pico

Never use crushed coral in a sw tank.
Any substrate is fine, and they contribute very little bioload.

so i'm going to be getting a 14g biocube next week. this will be my second tank and the plan is for it to be just sexies and coral at this point. how many sexies could i put into the tank? around 15 or so or could i go more than that. i plan on having lps and soft coral. no fish really maybe a couple of inverts or something along those lines i have fish in my 55g right now.

i forgot to ask this last night. if i'm going to be just doing corals and the sexies should i have the sg a little higher than normal? i've read invertabrates like higher sg.

In a 14 gal tank, you could easily do like 20 sexies... they are tiny, but not exactly cheap. You're looking at $10 a pop on average. Keep in mind they sometimes munch on corals.
I keep all my tanks (all including inverts) SG at 1.026.

thanks. i figured i could have a bunch in there. i'm just going to do it slow. i have another tank too. this one is going at my friends apt and i'm going to try using the nutri sea water and see how that works. it has the nanotuners upgrade so i think i can keep any lps i want. i'm leaning towards acans since my pistol likes to bury my new frags now. also some frogspawn,hammer and rics. i'm just going to try and make a sweet set up for the sexies.

Hi all,

Since this seems like a Sexy Expert thread, I thought I'd ask my question here. I have 3 sexys right now, one blenny and two clowns... what other fishes can I put in there that won't pose a threat to my sexy?? Any good idea?

Clown goby!

Most Gobies don't harm sexies. My Hi FIn REd Banded Goby doesn't harm my sexy. He's paired with a mated pair of pistols and despite wat ppl say they don't harm my sexy either.

I didn't read all 58 pages of this great thread, but I decided to take the leap and get three sexies for my 6 gal nano. They are active little suckers and irritate the hell out of the few coral frags I have in my tank (zoas and an acan). They are eating the corals for sure (I've observed it) and the zoas hate to oen up after a sexy walks on it. So I took the chance and fed them shrimp pellets yesterday in the hope they will stop eating my corals.

Here's the rub - my water params have been pristine (finally). I have not had a single strand of GHA for two weeks. Now that I'm feeding (all Ihave is corals and a CUC) I'm afraid my phosphate and nitrates will go up and I will have to deal with GHA and all of the other associated problems. I'm thinking of scrapping the sexies, but at $20 a pop I really hate to do so.

Any thoughts?

I had two sexy shrimp in my 14g biocube. One disappeared when I went away for two weeks. The other lived for ~1 year, last 3 months in my 75gallon, until about two weeks ago. She was eaten by the new engineer gobies I bought ~1 month prior. The gobies were already 7" long when I bought them but they took home on the left side of my tank and I remember last seeing my sexy shrimp making an odd trek to the left side of my tank, being that she usually sat on my kenya tree on the far right side. Hell I even remember seeing a part of her shell floating around, def. not molt.

I miss the chick. The engineer gobies are awesome but quite the sacrifice b/c I was accustomed to seeing the sexy shrimp out in the open all the time.

hey guys,

got my first sexy last night and plan on adding two more if all goes well. so far i haven't observed any problems, though she's been in hiding for a while, i can see her on the underside of one of my rocks. anyway, i have 3 hermits, and i was wondering if anyone's ever had problems with a sexy and hermits. just making sure i'm not gonna have to displace somebody (the hermits, duh).

thanks!

Dr. X - Hrm, you could either feed less and see if they behave or get rid of the sexies. It's really up to you.

Glowingjap - That sucks!
So engineer gobies are ornamental shrimp eaters...

amored - Congrats on your first sexy! I've never had any trouble with sexies cohabitating with hermit crabs. My sexies live in a 40br tank with hermits, an emerald, and a porcelain and there has been no issue at all.

good, then i'll proceed with her friends. thanks!

she has taken to happily hosting the candycane that i got from the same LFS. she is also a confirmed she, due to the presence of eggs on her abdomen, which she fans every five minutes or so. officially the most interesting animal in the tank. i can't wait to get more! i am dreaming grandiose schemes of sexy shrimp colony tanks... sigh.

but seriously, the dance? SO CUTE.

Wow I havnt been on this forum in a long long long time...
My 3 sexy shrimp have almost been in my tank a year and are all doing well.

had a winter storm last weekend,power was out for 36 hours

tank temp reached 48 degrees

sadly I lost all fish,snails,and 2 sexies

amazingly 2 sexies lived,and all the coral exept anthilia seem to be ok

I am going to have to find a gennie at some point,or a battery backup


Hmmmm,what fish to get now