reefdude

I would like to get the SW folks opinions on what the best shrimp would be for a 34 gal reef tank. My other stock will be 2 clowns (ocellaris), 2 turbo snails, 15 naussarius snails, 1 margarita snail and I'm thinking a 6 line wrasse. I'm leaning towards the Skunk but, I don't want them picking at the corals which I've read is common in this species and even more so with Peppermints. Is anyone with a skunk shrimp having trouble with them picking at the corals or is it one of those rare type scenarios?

sgould

Never seen my skunk mess with a coral.

Hypnox

The only picking I ever noticed my Skunk shrimp do was the short time I had an RBTA it would try to grab food from the anemones mouth. Otherwise it would just leave the corals alone, occasionally it would walk over one but that was the most it ever did as far as annoying corals.

dking271

I have a Coral Banded Shrimp in my nano reef, and it doesn't mess with the corals at all. He also lives in harmony with our false Perc and only bothered our Firefish right after he was introduced.

au01st

I have a skunk cleaner, 2 peppermints and a pistol shrimp. The skunk can be a jerk stealing food from my frogspawn, hammer, bubble, and when he walks anywhere he has little care for what he's walking on (usually making some zoas or the clam close up). The peppermints are pretty much only out at night so I don't see them bothering much. The pistol shrimp has no interest in corals.

Matt

Peppermint shrimps are great and are very active in getting rid of pest anemones (aiptasia). My peppermint didnt waste any time in gobbling down the small aiptasia i had starting which is good and saved me alot of money

-Matt

harpua2002

Same here. The aiptasia in my tank never got out of hand, but I found myself using a lot of Joe's Juice and they would still pop up here and there. I got a peppermint shrimp to see if it would help, and it cleaned up all the aiptasia in a matter of days. I haven't seen one since. My peppermint is out all day and very active. The worst I've seen it do is steal food from my acans, but it doesn't eat any coral.

As for the skunk shrimp, I haven't kept any but I worked at a LFS for a couple of years and never observed any problems with the shrimp at the store picking at corals. I'd keep either peppermints or skunks in a reef tank with little worry.

reefdude

Great! Thanks everyone for the input! Going today to pick one up!

ajax

what about fire shrimp, guys? are they known to clean tanks as well?

Oil_Fan

I've had a couple of fire shrimp. They're cool as can be to look at but don't do anything as far as cleaning fish. At least not that I've seen in my tank.

carlos413

The only thing that I don't like is that when I feed my anemone or corals they try and steal there food. Other than that they ok.

ajax

thanks for the info nice people!

ajax

hi guys! m thinking of getting a longnose butterflyfish for my tank. is it hard to feed because of their tiny mouth? i use granules, pellets and flakes. will it pick on my long-tentacled anemone? is it a hardy fish? thanks!