bang guy
Moderator
This week's critter will be very familiar to most of you, the Peppermint Shrimp. Peppermint shrimp are members of the Hippolytid Shrimp family and are all considered "Cleaners". Cleaner Shrimp have the interesting habit of jumping on fish (or hands) and use their tiny pinchers to quickly scour the skin, gills, and even teeth looking for parasites. They are fairly hearty except they have a very very low tolerance for Copper and osmotic shock.
The common name of "Peppermint Shrimp" has been applied to several Shrimp species. This comes as a surprise to most people. I'll briefly discuss the three Shrimps commonly found in the aquarium trade. I'm excluding the Camelback Shrimp Rhynchocinetes uritai as they are neither Lysmata nor are they cleaners nor are they reef safe (this IS the Reef Tanks Forum
). All of the Peppermint Shrimps are nocturnal by nature but can easily be trained to stay out during the day by feeding. Feeding them by hand will insure that they will be happy to see you.
Lysmata californica - California
Lysmata prima - Japan
Lysmata wurdemanni - Caribbean
Lysmata californica from the Eastern Pacific has reddish-brown legs and body with subtle White stripes running the length of the Carapace. When these are sold to hobbyists it is usually a mistake as they are not tropical animals and won't live long at reef temperatures.
Lysmata prima is smaller than the other two and can usually be identified by its yellow legs and Antenna. This is a smaller Shrimp and is happiest in groups of at least two. This shrimp is commonly sold on the West Coast and are strikingly beautiful in my opinion.
Lysmata wurdemanni is the most common Shrimp sold as Peppermint Shrimp. As the picture above shows they are red all over with subtly darker red streaks crosshatched across the carapace.
L. wurdemanni are also the only Peppermint Shrimp known to eat the dreaded Aiptasia sp. anemone. I have personally witnessed this event on many occasions and find their method of disposal ingenious. They will first poke at the Anemone with their pinchers and thoroughly irritate it. The Anemone will respond by excreting it's mesenterial filaments and the Shrimp will retreat to avoid becoming a meal. After a few minutes the dangerous threads will all be pointing down-current and the Shrimp will go to the opposite side of the Anemone and feast until the entire Anemone has been consumed. There does appear to be a limit to the size of Anemone that the Peppermint can handle though. I have a single large Aiptasia I keep that has, so far, been untouched by any Shrimp.
All three of these Shrimp are not easy to tell apart in the store regardless of the coloration differences. They have very similar body shapes and tend to lose most of their color when stressed thereby looking nearly identical.
The question of Iodine supplements always comes up as a requirement to "help" these shrimp molt. I believe this is strictly mythology. All Shrimp require trace amounts of Iodine in their diet as most animals do. There is absolutely no evidence that Shrimp gain any benefit from Iodine in the water column. There is evidence that greater than Natural Sea Water levels will cause them to molt excessively and eventually die. I do not suggest dosing Iodine in any form other than food for these Shrimp.
A not-so-common parasite sometimes found inside Cleaner Shrimp is the Epicaridean isopod. This is a death sentence for the Shrimp but will not spread to other Shrimp in the aquarium. These Isopods do not reproduce well in a closed environment.
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Cleaner Shrimp in general do not have a lot of requirements for vast amounts of space. Densities as great as 1 per 5 gallons is perfectly acceptable and mixing species doesn't seem to present a lot of problems either. They WILL eat some sand bed critters though. So, if you have a DSB as your filtration system is may not be in the best interest of your aquarium to densely stock these Shrimp. Keeping them well fed will cut down on their foraging for live critters. Feeding is very simple. They are scavengers and will eat any type of fish food.
The Lysmata wurdemanni has been successfully propagated by hobbyists and tank bred specimens can be purchased. It's very easy to breed them but quite difficult to raise the larvae after they hatch. All of the Lysmata's are hermaphrodites so having two will almost guarantee they will breed. Fertilized eggs appear under the tail and are initially bright green if they are fertilized. They will turn orange a couple of days before being released.
Here's a picture showing a newly hatched L. wurdemanni next to a 4 week old. Sorry for the picture quality, we can't all be a Ryebread
Please share your Shrimp stories and any pictures you have of your Peppermint.
The common name of "Peppermint Shrimp" has been applied to several Shrimp species. This comes as a surprise to most people. I'll briefly discuss the three Shrimps commonly found in the aquarium trade. I'm excluding the Camelback Shrimp Rhynchocinetes uritai as they are neither Lysmata nor are they cleaners nor are they reef safe (this IS the Reef Tanks Forum
). All of the Peppermint Shrimps are nocturnal by nature but can easily be trained to stay out during the day by feeding. Feeding them by hand will insure that they will be happy to see you.Lysmata californica - California
Lysmata prima - Japan
Lysmata wurdemanni - Caribbean
Lysmata californica from the Eastern Pacific has reddish-brown legs and body with subtle White stripes running the length of the Carapace. When these are sold to hobbyists it is usually a mistake as they are not tropical animals and won't live long at reef temperatures.
Lysmata prima is smaller than the other two and can usually be identified by its yellow legs and Antenna. This is a smaller Shrimp and is happiest in groups of at least two. This shrimp is commonly sold on the West Coast and are strikingly beautiful in my opinion.
Lysmata wurdemanni is the most common Shrimp sold as Peppermint Shrimp. As the picture above shows they are red all over with subtly darker red streaks crosshatched across the carapace.
L. wurdemanni are also the only Peppermint Shrimp known to eat the dreaded Aiptasia sp. anemone. I have personally witnessed this event on many occasions and find their method of disposal ingenious. They will first poke at the Anemone with their pinchers and thoroughly irritate it. The Anemone will respond by excreting it's mesenterial filaments and the Shrimp will retreat to avoid becoming a meal. After a few minutes the dangerous threads will all be pointing down-current and the Shrimp will go to the opposite side of the Anemone and feast until the entire Anemone has been consumed. There does appear to be a limit to the size of Anemone that the Peppermint can handle though. I have a single large Aiptasia I keep that has, so far, been untouched by any Shrimp.
All three of these Shrimp are not easy to tell apart in the store regardless of the coloration differences. They have very similar body shapes and tend to lose most of their color when stressed thereby looking nearly identical.
The question of Iodine supplements always comes up as a requirement to "help" these shrimp molt. I believe this is strictly mythology. All Shrimp require trace amounts of Iodine in their diet as most animals do. There is absolutely no evidence that Shrimp gain any benefit from Iodine in the water column. There is evidence that greater than Natural Sea Water levels will cause them to molt excessively and eventually die. I do not suggest dosing Iodine in any form other than food for these Shrimp.
A not-so-common parasite sometimes found inside Cleaner Shrimp is the Epicaridean isopod. This is a death sentence for the Shrimp but will not spread to other Shrimp in the aquarium. These Isopods do not reproduce well in a closed environment.
r />
Cleaner Shrimp in general do not have a lot of requirements for vast amounts of space. Densities as great as 1 per 5 gallons is perfectly acceptable and mixing species doesn't seem to present a lot of problems either. They WILL eat some sand bed critters though. So, if you have a DSB as your filtration system is may not be in the best interest of your aquarium to densely stock these Shrimp. Keeping them well fed will cut down on their foraging for live critters. Feeding is very simple. They are scavengers and will eat any type of fish food.
The Lysmata wurdemanni has been successfully propagated by hobbyists and tank bred specimens can be purchased. It's very easy to breed them but quite difficult to raise the larvae after they hatch. All of the Lysmata's are hermaphrodites so having two will almost guarantee they will breed. Fertilized eggs appear under the tail and are initially bright green if they are fertilized. They will turn orange a couple of days before being released.
Here's a picture showing a newly hatched L. wurdemanni next to a 4 week old. Sorry for the picture quality, we can't all be a Ryebread
Please share your Shrimp stories and any pictures you have of your Peppermint.
