Cleaner shrimp/fire shrimp

[exomanic]

Hi, im quite new with inverts but ive done some research on fire shrimps and skunks, they are supposed to be peaceful right?

So i went and bought 6 fire shrimps and 3 skunk shrimps into my tank.. it all went well for about 5 months until just recently, ive noticed 1 skunk missing. So i got curious and started to observe my shrimps interact. It seemed my skunks were terrified of the fire shrimps, and were boxed into a small corner of my tank. Ive also noticed the fire shrimps are acting aggressively with one another, kinda like a territorial thing. Both skunks and fire are around the same size, with the exception of one fire growing huge!

Anyway, does anyone else have this problem too? i mean if its some small bickering, ill just let it pass, but the fire shrimps seem to be out for blood.. please advise.. thanks

[samuel88]

Hi, im quite new with inverts but ive done some research on fire shrimps and skunks, they are supposed to be peaceful right?

So i went and bought 6 fire shrimps and 3 skunk shrimps into my tank.. it all went well for about 5 months until just recently, ive noticed 1 skunk missing. So i got curious and started to observe my shrimps interact. It seemed my skunks were terrified of the fire shrimps, and were boxed into a small corner of my tank. Ive also noticed the fire shrimps are acting aggressively with one another, kinda like a territorial thing. Both skunks and fire are around the same size, with the exception of one fire growing huge!

Anyway, does anyone else have this problem too? i mean if its some small bickering, ill just let it pass, but the fire shrimps seem to be out for blood.. please advise.. thanks

the size of your tank plays an important part as well, and when it comes to marine species aggression sometimes varies within individuals.

but most probably the fighting's due to a lack of space.

[yikai]

peaceful yes.

but not when u buy 5 blood shrimps and 3 cleaners.

that's too many.

most people keep one or two per tank and that;s it. not 8

[MbmC]

Fire shrimps can be very territorial even if shy. 6 is a rather large of fire shrimps to have in a single tank, even with enough hiding places!

[dnsfpl]

2 is good

free food

[jetski250]

Think need not panic. Observe a bit more.

My 2 fires were hiding from the 2 skunks in previous tank but otherwise no skirmishes.

Added 4 fires to my current tank and they all fought and 3 lost legs but have now all grown back. They are peaceful now.

Give them a bit more time and see if they settle down. You might want to make sure they are well fed though.

[CFOh]

I got 3 x fire shrimp, 1 x Peppermint shrimp & 2 x purple coral banded in Main tank & 2 x skunk shrimp in Holding tank (jail) . They well define their territory area.

Skunk shrimp r more problematic also more on active side.. Try segregate them and monitor again... Cheers...

[exomanic]

Hey guys, i really didnt know that i oughta keep 1 or 2, the problem is my tank is a 6ft, and if i put in 1 or 2 they would simply vanish forever(just like the 2 mandarins i put in other time). i think there is more than sufficient space cos my tank is about 800 litres and tons of hiding places, but the shrimps all congregate in small areas and keep whacking each other...Its quite sad cos ive grown quite fond of seeing this colorful critters exist in my tank for such a long time already. I guess i just gota let nature take its path.

[Underwater]

Don't worry too much, they are unlikely to kill each other, somemore yours a huge 6 feet tank. Can easily accommodate the number you bought, anyway you probably won't get to see the fire shrimps as they hide within the LR most of the time. Unless you are talking about coral banded shrimps which are more aggressive and more likely to attack other shrimps...But even so, not easy for them to catch and kill the faster and more agile fire and skunk shrimps. i have 2 fire, 4 skunk and a coral banded living together.

[CFOh]

Ya, once the pecking order established sld be fine.. but Sometime, sacrifices may happen if weaker dun give way.... Cheers..

[exomanic]

Don't worry too much, they are unlikely to kill each other, somemore yours a huge 6 feet tank. Can easily accommodate the number you bought, anyway you probably won't get to see the fire shrimps as they hide within the LR most of the time. Unless you are talking about coral banded shrimps which are more aggressive and more likely to attack other shrimps...But even so, not easy for them to catch and kill the faster and more agile fire and skunk shrimps. i have 2 fire, 4 skunk and a coral banded living together.

whoa u keep a coral banded together with them? Its also known as a boxer shrimp right? thats pretty scary to keep together with ur skunk and fire haha

[Underwater]

i always have these three types of shrimps in my reef tanks. Not a problem though i do hear of encounters where coral banded (aka boxer shrimp) would try to attack the other types of shrimps. But mixing two or more coral banded shrimps will be an issue as they tend to fight and even kill the other if both are not a mated pair.

[jetski250]

i always have these three types of shrimps in my reef tanks. Not a problem though i do hear of encounters where coral banded (aka boxer shrimp) would try to attack the other types of shrimps. But mixing two or more coral banded shrimps will be an issue as they tend to fight and even kill the other if both are not a mated pair.

My friend had a 1m by 1m cube reef tank. When saw the tank for first time, wondered why all his 6 skunk shrimps gathered around the wave-makers. Took a closer look and saw a coral banded under the rocks. He was the king of the tank in terms of shrimps.

After my previous tank experience in which my sknuks 'bullied' my fires and the fires just hid all the time, I decided to go with only Fires this round. Happy to report that my Fires now are all active and frequently roaming out of the rocks even during full MH blast. Lovely Scarlet colour!

[CFOh]

whoa u keep a coral banded together with them? Its also known as a boxer shrimp right? thats pretty scary to keep together with ur skunk and fire haha

Ya, they r boxer shrimp family.

Try blue/purple/Yellow banded coral shrimp (Stenopus cyanoscelis), very friendly and shy... also smaller size..

The other more aggressive one is Banded Coral Shrimp (Stenopus hispidus)...

Cheers..

[unltd]

Don't want to start a brand new topic, I have tried keeping fire shrimps a few times but they never seem to last over 12 hours in main tank... I drip acclimatise over at least 3 hours using the 1 to 2 drops per sec method. Then release into the tank. It seems ok and doing well, at night I feed it and it eats, however the next morning I will find it dead.

Just yesterday I acclimatise from around 6+pm to 10pm, put it into tank, it is doing well, even at 4am it is eating. But in the morning at 8am it is dead.

Anyone has any idea why this is happening?

My water parameters seem ok, I have a pair of clowns, 1 yellow banded possum wrasse, 1 peppermint shrimp and 1 sexy shrimp (the other 4 got eaten by yellow banded).

[Tian85]

Don't want to start a brand new topic, I have tried keeping fire shrimps a few times but they never seem to last over 12 hours in main tank... I drip acclimatise over at least 3 hours using the 1 to 2 drops per sec method. Then release into the tank. It seems ok and doing well, at night I feed it and it eats, however the next morning I will find it dead.

Just yesterday I acclimatise from around 6+pm to 10pm, put it into tank, it is doing well, even at 4am it is eating. But in the morning at 8am it is dead.

Anyone has any idea why this is happening?

My water parameters seem ok, I have a pair of clowns, 1 yellow banded possum wrasse, 1 peppermint shrimp and 1 sexy shrimp (the other 4 got eaten by yellow banded).

Tank might have copper to cause the dead. Maybe can get a copper test kit to be double sure! Another reason might be your yellow banded wrasse killed it.

Happy Reefing!

[unltd]

Tank might have copper to cause the dead. Maybe can get a copper test kit to be double sure! Another reason might be your yellow banded wrasse killed it.

Happy Reefing!

Can't be copper, I have peppermint and sexy, some hitch hiker snails... They would all be dead.... The yellow banded didn't bother it cause the fire shrimp was alot bigger. The shrimp had no injuries either...

Could it be "frightened" to death by too much activity?