various cleaner shrimps compatible?

[dbacksrat]

i was wondering if the various cleaner shrimps (blood red fire shrimp, peppermint, etc) could be successfully kept together in a small tank (29 gallons)...i know the coral banded shrimp (S. hipidus) shouldnt be kept with any of them......

 

[Nutfarm]

All the shrimp you used as examples would be fine together. As you already pointed out, the coral banded shrimp would be a no no. I would probably add camel shrimp to the no no list too. They'll get along fine with your other shrimp but will graze on your corals.

 

[1979camaro]

i agree with nutfarm on this one...any of the Lysmata shrimp ought to be fine together...but, if you go for peppermint shrimp (which I think is a fine choice!) make sure you don't accidentally get camel shrimp. it is fairly easy to tell them apart if you know what they both look like, but a lot of LFS will label camels as peppermint. the most telling feature is of course the hump, the camel also will have eyes which project from the body; the striping pattern is somewhat different as well

 

[dbacksrat]

i've seen peppermint shrimp in the wild before and i know what they look like, i also know what camels look like from my lfs

 

[S.Reef]

The lysmata shrimp can be kept in groups. I have 2 Blood shrimp and 3 regular cleaners in a 20 gallon. Coral banded nope...at my store we acclimate the shrimp together in a container. We placed 3 coral bandeds together...one was left alive in like ten minutes!

 

[dbacksrat]

thats too bad the coral banded shrimp cant get along with others because i think they're one of the coolest looking shrimp around, and a great price too...
so in other words if i had peppermint, red, and regular cleaner shrimp all in the same tank they wouldnt kill each other-thats very good news

 

[1979camaro]

could be kept together, though they might starve depending on how many you have and what other scavenging type critters you may have in there

 

[S.Reef]

Cleaner shrimp are cool. They will become tame enough for you to feed them directly. If you dont want to though, all you have to do is put some mysis in there and they will be fine.

 

[amu21]

sorry to hijack, but which of these (if any) actually clean fish?

 

[1979camaro]

the cleaner shrimp....and the blood shrimp sometimes

 

[S.Reef]

Once and a while a Coral banded shrimp will clean a fish.