Diff shrimps living together?

[kraziworm83]

Hi bros,

As above.. Do you tink blood, camel, peppermint, boxer, cleaner shrimp can live together in the same tank. Lets say in a 2 or 3 ft tank. Share ur views

[jewelking]

Boxer and Cleaner shrimp definitely cannot live together.

The boxer will eat up the cleaner shrimp.

The rest I'm also trying to find out.

Cheers !

[iantoh]

hi there crazyworm and jewel king,

just my two cents worth ya- hope it helps/

compatibility for shrimps really has alot of factors involved, including availability of food, and also, hiding places (because should there be a lack of this, they might fight over territory for them to retreat to when they molt).

most of the shrimps in the Hippolytidae family (that is, the lysmata shrimps- skunk cleaner, blood shrimp, camel shrimp, and peppermint shrimp) should get along fine within a 3 feet system if you only have like a pair of each, and feed the tank adequately such that they get enough to eat by way of scraps and detritus.

try to avoid mixing boxer shrimps into the fold. they are usually the cause of shrimp incompatibility as they are far more aggressive, and though they perform some useful cleaning services in the wild, this is almost non-existent in our tanks due to the sizes of our fish being too small for them to service.

if youre able to find shrimps from the periclimenes family, like the holthuisi available at Henry's or ###### shrimps, you can consider trying them as they are very peaceable shrimps. personally i have kept skunk cleaners with blood shrimps to no ill effect, and right now, have a pair of yellow arrow shrimps with three ###### shrimps, and about two hundred mysid shrimps all in a small system.

before you add lots of shrimps to your system, take care to get your water quality stable first ya. nitrates are a danger to inverts, and they'll need some iodine for proper molting. stocking slowly lets you see how they adapt, and f they thrive, then add more?

cheers,

ian

[kraziworm83]

Hey thanks ian, will take note of ur advise as currently only got cleaner in my tank. There r a few diff boxer around.. the common, gold and purple leg boxer, r all of them aggressive?

[angmoh]

yup generally boxer are more aggressive.

personally what i'm keeping now is a pair of skunk cleaner, a pair of anemone shrimp and a peppermint shrimp (new addition) . so far so good.

i never tho' of adding boxer tho' , cos i heard it'll try to attack/kacau fish

[jewelking]

where to get live mysid shrimp to breed ?

[iantoh]

hahaha... i offer live mysids for sale a few days back but response poor la.

anyhows, regarding the boxer shrimps, apparently the yellow and purple legged or abdomen-ed colour morphs are less agressive, but id still consider them unsafe for co-habiting with other cleaner shrimps as the lysmatas and periclimenes families are quite shy. avoid the boxers and i think most of the rest that are commonly offered for sale should do alright together, long as the tank is large enough to accomodate them, there are lots of hiding places, water quality is good, and there arent fish that are likely to harass them.

cheers,

ian

ps: my new tank just arrived today. when i get it running, after i solve my plumbing headache, i'll try to start a new tank thread and post some pics of my yellow arrow shrimps that i got from henry ya.

[Kelmen]

IMO:

for best shrimp compatibility, avoid shrimps with "weapon" - pincers.

I have 2 old and big cleaner shrimps, with 2 new and small peppermint shrimps, been mxied about 1 month inside 4' tank. No problem so far.

[cornyfish]

I have 2 skunk cleaners with a boxer together with 3 pistol shrimps, and so far its been 3 months and they're all doing fine. However, the boxer will chase the cleaners or for that matter, any fish or invertebrate away from his favourite rock.

As for boxers, yes, avoid the common boxer shrimp, its the worst tempered of the family. But in my experience, the yellow headed boxer is very delicate, unlike the other boxers.. might want to take this into consideration.

[Maxstar81]

My boxer share rock with 2 camel.

Slightly aggresive but ok lah.

Everybody leaves the glass shrimps alone.

Glass shrimps are great sandbed cleaners.

Note - camel eats small anemones and feather stars.

[alvin_varian]

hi

is the first pic a boxer? I ahve one of this, thinking of addine in other cleaner shrimp.

[kraziworm83]

Yes, the 1st pic is a boxer. Must b careful as boxer is known to b quite aggressive...