thoughts on shrimp in reef
 

what are your thoughts on having shrimp in your reef

cleaner shrimp
sexy shrimp
Fire shrimp
Coral banded shrimp
Peppermint shrimp
Pistol
ETC

I was thinking on getting a cleaner or sexy let me know whaty you think

I've had cleaner shrimp and peppermint shrimp in all my reef tanks. They are pretty much reef safe (I have heard of peppermint shrimp eating zoas but its never happened to me and I have had lots over the years).

The big problem with them and you may find it too annoying to put up with, they like to steal food right out of corals mouths and they can dig down pretty deep to get it

And this is the exact reason why I don't think I'll ever have any shrimp (especially sexy shrimp) in my tanks again :sad:

yah im thinking of picking up 1 of both, then if they dont work out, in the sump/fuge they go!

I have 4 sexy's in my nano and a peppermint. I love the sexy's, no problems with them but the darn peppermint is horrible for stealing food from my corals. I find the sexy's pretty much sit tight and wait for food to come to them unlike the peppermint.

Peppermints are hell on aiptasia. They are also terrible for stealing food from corals. I used to feed mine first then feed the corals. My cleaner shrimp is also a thief but not as aggressive as the pep.

My sexies like to jump around and close polyps which bugged me in the nano because it was more obvious but in the 65g they don't tend to do this as much, mostly hanging out in my birds'nest (which doesn't seem to mind) and rarely stealing food.

My gold CBB (in another tank) is a thief! but I only have a couple of corals in there so it's not such a big deal.


Other than the theft, niether of them directly harm the corals



One thing to consider would be that a lot of cool looking fish don't mind making a meal of a shrimp

I've got 2 big fire shrimp and a peppermint shrimp in my tank, they've all been model citizens.

I'm adding a pistol shrimp (and goby) to my nano tank today and I've had a Coral Banded in my main tank for over a year without any issues.

my fire shrimp were awsome aswell. also i have never seen my camelbacks do anthing to worry about.