peppermint shrimp vs cleaner shrimp

[Hardesty2]

hey y'all! I have a 20 gallon tank and i plan to add a pair of clowns a cardinal fish, and maybe a goby. I know i want to add a shrimp as well, would you all recommend the peppermint or the cleaner? thank you so much! ( I also plan to add soft corals in the next few months when the tank is more established)

 

[Lavey29]

Neither, get a blood red fire shrimp. Way cooler looking

 

[Hardesty2]

Neither, get a blood red fire shrimp. Way cooler looking

they look sick, i've heard they don't live super long though.

 

[paragrouper]

I have peppermint shrimp and a red fire shrimp.

The peppermint shrimp are scavengers who are seldom seen during the day. I see the fire shrimp a bit more.

 

[danreef55]

it depends on what you want them for:

• Service the fish removing parasites & dead skin = cleaner shrimp.
• Scavenger and eat aptasia = peppermint shrimp
• Looks = fire shrimp

 

[Lavey29]

they look sick, i've heard they don't live super long though.

Mine been in the tank few years now

 

[VintageReefer]

You can add peppermints and never see them. They are shy and hide a lot

Blood / fire and cleaners are more bold. And larger

 

[mh0ward]

Skunk cleaner is easily my favorite invert, and maybe my favorite overall inhabitant in my tank. It’ll go to work on cleaning your hand if you too if you want

 

[TheStrangler]

You can get peppermint shrimp to eat aiptasia so thats a plus, but agreed with everyone else. Cleaners are more bold and front and center. All of mine would hop onto my arms whenever I did tank maintenance. My fires were a little shyer but still more present than peppermints. One thing to note with a smaller tank, I see you're just planning on soft corals but if you're planning on LPS or similar and enjoy feeding your corals, know that the shrimp will pull every single bit of food that you manage to delicately place on your corals from their gullets. If you're hoping to be able to spot feed, it won't work. I had cleaner shrimp dive head first into anemones to snatch food from them. My clowns would bite them, the nems would try to eat them, but they'd never learn.

 

[Fish Fan]

I have a blood red shrimper in a 15 gallon AIO and love him.

You mentioned a Goby in the first post, have you considered a Goby/pistol shrimp pair? This is a pretty cool symbiosis between some of the Goby species and some specific pistol shrimp species. They form a bond where they never leave each other's side, the Goby will watch for and alart the pistol shrimp to any danger in the area, and the nearly-blind shrimp busies itself making and maintaining a borrow that both the Goby and the shrimp occupy. Many people find this combo interesting, and you can have the Goby/Pistol shrimp pair in addition to another shrimp like a blood red or cleaner shrimp in your tank.

Here's a video (not mine) of a Yasha Goby (Stonogobiops yasha) and Randall's or Candy Cane pistol shrimp (Alpheus randalli):


Good luck with your tank!

 

[Hardesty2]

You can get peppermint shrimp to eat aiptasia so thats a plus, but agreed with everyone else. Cleaners are more bold and front and center. All of mine would hop onto my arms whenever I did tank maintenance. My fires were a little shyer but still more present than peppermints. One thing to note with a smaller tank, I see you're just planning on soft corals but if you're planning on LPS or similar and enjoy feeding your corals, know that the shrimp will pull every single bit of food that you manage to delicately place on your corals from their gullets. If you're hoping to be able to spot feed, it won't work. I had cleaner shrimp dive head first into anemones to snatch food from them. My clowns would bite them, the nems would try to eat them, but they'd never learn.

good to know, thanks!

 

[Hardesty2]

I have a blood red shrimper in a 15 gallon AIO and love him.

You mentioned a Goby in the first post, have you considered a Goby/pistol shrimp pair? This is a pretty cool symbiosis between some of the Goby species and some specific pistol shrimp species. They form a bond where they never leave each other's side, the Goby will watch for and alart the pistol shrimp to any danger in the area, and the nearly-blind shrimp busies itself making and maintaining a borrow that both the Goby and the shrimp occupy. Many people find this combo interesting, and you can have the Goby/Pistol shrimp pair in addition to another shrimp like a blood red or cleaner shrimp in your tank.

Here's a video (not mine) of a Yasha Goby (Stonogobiops yasha) and Randall's or Candy Cane pistol shrimp (Alpheus randalli):


Good luck with your tank!

i didn't even consider the pistol and goby combo, thank you!

 

[Lavey29]

If you want a true gangster in the tank, get a banded shrimp.

 

[dnprall]

I have both a skunk cleaner and peppermint shrimp (and a pistol/goby). My tank is 40 gallon display. I see both the skunk and peppermint shrimp all the time. My peppermint shrimp always seem to be visible. In fact, it's usually the first one to the frozen shrimp cube during feeding.

 

[LPS Bum]

I’d go with a fire shrimp over either of them. But if you really want something cool, get a small Daum or Debellius Purple Lobster. We have one in my daughter’s 29 gal. Hides a lot but super good looking.

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

hey y'all! I have a 20 gallon tank and i plan to add a pair of clowns a cardinal fish, and maybe a goby. I know i want to add a shrimp as well, would you all recommend the peppermint or the cleaner? thank you so much! ( I also plan to add soft corals in the next few months when the tank is more established)

peppermint for aiptasia and cleaner for beauty. Peps don’t come out a lot. Plus they aren’t as attractive

 

[phillyb614]

I have 2 peppermint shrimp and 1 cleaner. I have a 20 gallon as well. Have not had any issues. Cleaner was in there first. Added the peppermints years later to help with a BAD aiptasia outbreak. Peppermint shrimp were about 1/3 the size of the cleaner when I added them. Not sure if any of that really mattered, but just letting you know what worked for me.

 

[Hardesty2]

I have 2 peppermint shrimp and 1 cleaner. I have a 20 gallon as well. Have not had any issues. Cleaner was in there first. Added the peppermints years later to help with a BAD aiptasia outbreak. Peppermint shrimp were about 1/3 the size of the cleaner when I added them. Not sure if any of that really mattered, but just letting you know what worked for me.

thank you, i'm thinking i wanna do a little bit of both!

 

[rc100722]

My peppermint shrimp ate my hologram hammer his getting served a eviction notice

 

[exnisstech]

I have blood red, skunk cleaner, coral banded and peppermints. Peppermints are my favorite because mine keep the display free of aiptasia. Skunk cleaners are cool but I'll never keep them with fleshy lps again. I used to have to cover coral if I target fed as the cleaner would rip food out from inside the coral. Peppermints are actually quite pretty as adults. I've found them to be very active when feeding as long as there are not large fish in the tank
EDIT : not sure why the video quality is so poor