How many peppermint shrimp?

[Troy Valentine]

Only saw mine a few times during the day, but at night I would catch them scavenging the system. They were all coastal peppermints.

[danvan75]

mine came from the coast.

[Gseclipse02]

Out of curiosity...

Where did your shrimp come from? The coast or LFS?

There's a few different species of peppermints, they're hard to tell apart. Ones at the LFS will vary with distributor and time of year.

The species found at our coast is supposed to be "more reef safe" than some other varieties.

This is just what I've read, and it's all supposition from hobbyists, no scientific proof.

i wouldn't say thats true ..... i added 100+ in the first week they ate most of the acans i had and a big open brain but my mystery wrasse, green corris wrasse ate good for 3 months

i have never seen fish grow so fast

[tebstan]

100 shrimp at one time... well, what else did they have to eat? That's a bit extreme. I wouldn't add 100 of anything to my tank at one time

[cbianco]

i wouldn't say thats true ..... i added 100+ in the first week they ate most of the acans i had and a big open brain but my mystery wrasse, green corris wrasse ate good for 3 months

i have never seen fish grow so fast

Just to share my experience... I used one peppermint for my 30 gallon. It did it's job well but only lasted about 1.5 years.

I'm with Troy on this one, start small and work up. You already have 4 shrimp and I assume that you have some snails and hermits as well. I don't know your feeding regimin but if you hardly feed I wouldn't add any. If you feed regularly then add a few. I just wouldn't want to see the shrimp starve or go after your corals.

JMO.

Christopher

[tebstan]

I feed a lot... automatic feeder twice daily, once for fish at noon and once for coral at midnight. And then whatever frozen or live I toss in on a regular basis.

I have a handful of blue legs and ton of nerites. A few planaxis, ceriths, and nassarius.

I think I'll start with the four biggest peppermints and see if I can get them in safely without the angel eating them. I'd like a few more than that, but I'll start slow as suggested.

[cbianco]

Cool! Sounds like you have a good plan my friend.

Christopher

[Europhyllia]

I only had 3 peppermints in a 125 gallon tank and I feed a lot and still they thought my acans were tasty!