Cleaner Shrimps

[JonSolo]

Hello all,

My question for this week pertains to cleaner shrimp. Currently I have 2 scarlet skunk cleaner shrimp in my 75gal reef, with 5 small to med size fish. I really like the blood red fire shrimp as well. Would it be advisable to add 2 blood red shrimp, or would this cause problems with my shrimp population?

Thanks in advance!

[limitup]

You won't have any problems. I have 5 of each in my 150 gallon tank.

[lando]

In a 75 [acronym:c250c6e57b="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:c250c6e57b] you should be just fine to add another couple of shrimp.

[Shultz]

I have a 30gal (42 US) tank cycling atm, would I be ok with 1 each of peppermint, cleaner & Blood?

Cheers Shelton.

[lando]

In a 30 [acronym:0397d772d1="Gallon"]gal[/acronym:0397d772d1]. you might be a bit tight. You will not see your peppermint much, they hang out under [acronym:0397d772d1="Live rock"]LR[/acronym:0397d772d1]. A cleaner would be great. I have never kept a blood and cleaner together in that small of tank so I can't really say how it would go. Good Luck...Lando

[Shultz]

You think I might be better off then with say a couple of cleaners & some snails?

I also thought about a couple of blue or red hermit crabs & maybe one each of a red & blue starfish......

Will the fact I have just [acronym:6c04cf9a4e="Live rock"]LR[/acronym:6c04cf9a4e] in my tank upset any of the above?

Cheers Shelton.

[austinsdad]

In my 75g, I've got 4 peppermint, 3 large cleaner and 2 small cleaners, 3 blood red, and a pistol under the ground. All have been doing extremely well and I see all of them often. It seems when there are at least 3 of any of'm, maybe they feel strength in numbers and come out front a lot more [acronym:26b851155e="In my opinion"]IMO[/acronym:26b851155e].

[kwan]

I don't want to hijack this thread, but I am about to get another cleaner shrimp. I have two cleaners and one blood and they live happily together. But my cleaner shrimps seems to have lost interest in cleaning the fishes. That might be because they have been laying eggs and too busy to carry out their natural routine.

So I am hoping to get a third cleaner to do this job again. Does anyone know whether introducing a third cleaner to a mated pair will cause problem?

[Atari]

They are hermaphrodites, so no such thing as a "mated pair"

It's also normal for them to lose interest in cleaning once they realise they get fed without having to work.

[MT79]

They are hermaphrodites, so no such thing as a "mated pair"

So are clowns and they form pairs. I have 3 cleaners, two of them are close one of which is carrying eggs, the third is usually by his/her-self [acronym:41e0d7213b="For what its worth"]FWIW[/acronym:41e0d7213b]. Kwan, there should not be a problem, just some occasional squabbles.