sexy shrimp with Z & P's

[Tabasco1]

Most everything I have read about sexy's is that they are ok with corals as a blanket statement. I read an older thread where the OP said that his sexy's were having a field day with them.

Was that an exception or are sexy's ok with most corals just not z & P?

Please share your experience. Thanks!

 

[ficklefins]

Once upon a time I had 4 in a tank. Three of them joined a gang and the other one was bullied around the tank and didn't get to feed as well as the other three. At one point in time I noticed that the bullied sexy shrimp decided to make up for that lack of food by feeding on my zoas. I can't really blame the little guy, but I ended up getting rid of all of them because I enjoyed my zoas more than my shrimp. I really like those shrimp, but after seeing it eat 1/4 of a polyp I thought it was enough.

Here is the aftermath:

 

[ficklefins]

Let me just add, that the situation above may be unique to my particular situation. If I only had the three I'm not sure that I would have had that one shrimp feeding on my zoas.

 

[Tabasco1]

Thanks Fickle-Would have been interesting to know what would have happened with the other 3, if they would have stayed model citizens or not. But the information on multiples is good as I was planning on keeping a harem with 1 male and 2-3 females.

Anybody else??

 

[ychan]

I had a pair of sexy shrimp before. They are good, eating every thing I feed into the tank until I brought a purple tang. The tang kept picking on the shrimps and they finally didn't venture out anymore. Nevertheless, they still growing well until I realized that... they changed their food source to the polyps of my birdnest colony. They were eating the birdnest really clean, one branch at a time!! I relocated the shrimp to my friend’s tank

 

[returnofsid]

We had 5, in an Aquapod 24. Unfortunately, the destroyed several colonies of Zoanthids, so had to be removed.

 

[Tabasco1]

Dang! So 100% of feedback is not good! I thought they were a given on my stock list til I happened to read that post and was HOPING that was isolated.

 

[returnofsid]

Well, my experience isn't what I'd call an isolated incident. However, there are many people who've had Sexy Shrimp behave as model citizens. Read all you can on them, figure out the odds, and then make your decision.

A lot of what I read said that if they're well fed, they'll leave Zoanthids alone. Well, mine were well fed. I knew the risks and wanted to give it the best possible chance, so I was careful to make sure they were fed well. Yeah, didn't work out so well, for me.