Cleaner Peppermint .. can they be neighbors?

[CallATT]

Hey.. I was wondering if cleaners and peppermint shrimp could be in the same tank.. i have a 55 gal tank.. that has aiptasia popping up every once in a while.. and i hot water the ones i can see. but i'm afraid of the ones i can't.. so i wanted to put 1 peppermint shrimp in there to make sure that the aiptasia never gets too big... but I really wanted to have 3 cleaners in the tank as well.. can this be done? or am i way off my rocker?:confused:

[Agu]

I have both, but it's a 180 and they stay far apart. However, the aiptasia that was on the cleaners side of the tank are gone :D .

Agu

[Pomacanthus1]

I have one of each in my 55g. No problems whatsoever. I even plan on adding another skunk cleaner and 3 more peppermints to take care of aiptasia :uzi:

Shrimp are great, well behaved reef citizens. The only complaint from people is that sometimes they steal food from corals when you feed them, but thats not much of a problem at all.

[CallATT]

awesome!.. good to hear.. i cna't wait to see the aiptasia become a tasty treat to a peppermint.. muhahaha

[Wolverine]

I know that many have kept the two together without trouble, but when we had a cleaner and peppermint in our tank, they fought like crazy. At first they were the same size, but cleaners get bigger. As soon as our cleaner was big enough, it killed the peppermint.

Dave

[SabreFan]

I have had peppermints and cleaner shrimp together in a number of tanks, and I have NEVER had any problems!!

IMO shrimp are quite possibly the best reef inhabitants (besides coral, of course!). They are very entertaining, add less to the bio-load than fish and are very attractive. I would suggest that you keep them in pairs or small groups in order to see their comical behaviors. Single shrimp tend to hide in the rockwork and act "shy".

I have kept a number of shrimp (cleaners, camels, peppermints and fire) that would even climb on my hand when I did maintenance, and search for food!:fun1: