Cleaner Shrimp Reputation

[lagunastudio]

This is my peppermint shrimp that constantly picks at any soft or lps coral in my tank.

 

 

This is a camelback shrimp

 

 

It's pretty easy to tell the two apart and highly unlikely that someone will sell you a camelback telling you it's a peppermint. Neither are reef safe, buy a fire/blood shrimp if you really want a shrimp. But even those can be annoying and make spot feeding corals very difficult. Buy more snails or hermits, I recommend halloween hermits they are really good cleaners.

[halcyonism]

This is my peppermint shrimp that constantly picks at any soft or lps coral in my tank.

 

 

This is a camelback shrimp

 

 

It's pretty easy to tell the two apart and highly unlikely that someone will sell you a camelback telling you it's a peppermint. Neither are reef safe, buy a fire/blood shrimp if you really want a shrimp. But even those can be annoying and make spot feeding corals very difficult. Buy more snails or hermits, I recommend halloween hermits they are really good cleaners.

 

+1

 

In my opinion, if you can't tell the difference between a peppermint and a camel shrimp then you should probably be researching livestock a bit more.

[Eugene123]

+1 to the cammelback/peppermint confusion being most of the problem IMO. But i hated mine because he hid 24/7. Also dont get a fire shrimp. It hid also and only came out at night occasionaly. I now have a scarlet skunk cleaner and it is hands down my favorite thng in the tank. I like it more than my corals and fish. Its out 75% of the time and funny to watch. Mine cleans every new fish as soon as they touch the water and wanders around the tank scavenging and "dancing".

 

It will also clean your hand when its in the tank wich is funny at first until your trying to move rocks and corals around without squishing him.

 

My perppermint shrimp started munching my corals. Did a little research and turned out to be a camel shrimp. Had to tear my tank apart to get to it. I have had 2 or 3 real peppermints without a problem.

[Islandoftiki]

Never had issues with my peppermint shrimp eating corals.

 

I now have two skunk cleaner shrimp and they're model citizens in terms of not actually eating the corals. However, they will happily steal food from the corals, so if you target feed something, you're going to have to keep the shrimp away from it long enough for it to eat. There are a number of strategies for this. My strategy is not to have any corals that need to be target fed to survive. You can also target feed your shrimp first, then when they're busy eating when you feed the corals.

[RainbowTurtle]

I was told the skunk cleaners are reef safe, but mine has gotten huge and it is actively going after my young clowns. My clowns are ich free and healthy. I have never seen a skunk cleaner behave like him. He is also rough with my corals. He doesn't try to kill them, but he will dig into them and yank food out of their mouths, sometimes damaging tentacles on my frogspawn. He will have to go. For one he is out growing my tank, which surprises me. I was told they don't get very big. I have a 14g nano. I will try to get a video of it. People aren't going to believe this. Worst, is he's kind of my buddy. I genuinely LIKE him. He eats right out of my hand and crawls on me and tries to clean my glove. He's super personable. It just sucks, but my fish are also like that. They eat out of my hands. Clowns I have raised since babies and I like them just as much. He is actually larger than they are and that might be the issue. They are only about an inch long while he is over two inches long. I am not sure. I have never heard of or seen stories of any skunk cleaner doing this. I am positive he is a skunk cleaner too. It's just odd. Just goes to show you though, they are each their own unique animals. Really wish I could keep him, but it's becoming unethical due to his size. My lfs assured me he wouldn't outgrow my tank too. It's just a buggy situation.

[piano15]

I had skunk cleaner with no issues at all but like all living creatures, each one is different.

[Marius_LT]

Sorry to resurrect old thread but this morning I witnessed cleaner shrimp eating blue-legged hermit alive, poor guy was stuck between rock and glass and had to leave his shell to find his demise.  And recently I had another mysterious deaths of red-legged and emerald crab that might point to cleaner shrimp..

 

And I have peppermint shrimp too, after they have eaten Aiptasia they went after the other corals completely decimated a few. Lessons learned soon I'll be upgrading to 60g Cube from 27 AIO tank, and only shrimp are going there is my pair of sexy shrimp.

[Lula_Mae]

2 hours ago, Marius_LT said:

Sorry to resurrect old thread but this morning I witnessed cleaner shrimp eating blue-legged hermit alive, poor guy was stuck between rock and glass and had to leave his shell to find his demise.  And recently I had another mysterious deaths of red-legged and emerald crab that might point to cleaner shrimp..

 

And I have peppermint shrimp too, after they have eaten Aiptasia they went after the other corals completely decimated a few. Lessons learned soon I'll be upgrading to 60g Cube from 27 AIO tank, and only shrimp are going there is my pair of sexy shrimp.

Sadly, a hermit without a shell is defenseless and easy prey for anything.

 

Be aware that sexy shrimp have been known to eat corals such as zoas, acans and blastos.

[Clown79]

On 13/04/2012 at 10:18 PM, wonderz said:

I think some horror stories about peppermint shrimp are from people mistakenly bought a camelback shrimp that was sold to them as a peppermint. In terms skunk shrimp, i don't think you should have any problem. Just make sure you only keep one or two together. As with any shrimp, they are opportunistic eaters, so they might try to take food away from anemone. So keep them distracted or feed them first during feeding time.

 

I know mine were peppermint shrimp 100%.

There is a very distinct difference in look between peppermint and camel.

 

The camel has white lines and huge hump.

 

Peppermint are listed as caution because if they eat aiptasia, then they can eat coral.

 

There are quite a lot of ppl who have had issues with peppermints.

 

I had mine destroy 2 acans and a favia

 

The biggest issue with cleaner shrimps is them stealing food from corals. Feed them food while you feed coral.

 

Sexy shrimp are cool too.

[1891Bro]

All shrimp suck. They are horrible creatures best reserved for cocktails and gumbo. 

 

Stupid old thread. 

[seabass]

1 hour ago, 1891Bro said:

They are horrible creatures best reserved for cocktails and gumbo.

Hmm... Bubba forgot shrimp cocktails, "You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that's about it".

[Lula_Mae]

18 minutes ago, seabass said:

Hmm... Bubba forgot shrimp cocktails, "You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kabobs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That- that's about it".

Bubba knew what was up!  Shrimp are delicious lol

[seabass]

42 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

Shrimp are delicious

Why don't sharks eat clownfish?

 

 

Because they taste "funny".   

[Lula_Mae]

22 minutes ago, seabass said:

Why don't sharks eat clownfish?

 

 

Because they taste "funny".   

 

I thought it was because fish are friends, not food?

[1891Bro]

28 minutes ago, seabass said:

Why don't sharks eat clownfish?

 

 

Because they taste "funny".   

Someone's been googling lame dad jokes. 

[seabass]

Amazon's Alexa told me that one tonight.  Most of her jokes are pretty bad, but occasionally she tells one that makes you smile.

[Lula_Mae]

1 hour ago, seabass said:

Amazon's Alexa told me that one tonight.  Most of her jokes are pretty bad, but occasionally she tells one that makes you smile.

My mom once asked Siri whether she believed in God.  She answered something about the separation of silicon and state, or something like that.