Corals and shrimp

[coralville]

Hi,
I was wondering if you know when you will have lps corals available?

Also, are your peppermint shrimp captive bred? How do you know each shipment contains true L. wurdemanni? I previously purchased peppermint shrimp from a very large, well known company (not you guys) and received L. rathbunae instead of L. wurdemanni (they look very similar). I didn't figure this out until I saw the shrimp munching on my lps corals and did some investigating online. I've had a heck of a time getting the shrimp out of the tank, and even now still have 1 lone coral munching shrimp I can't seem to catch. So, I still need true peppermint shrimp but you can see why I'm asking if you know FOR SURE they are L. wurdemanni.

Thanks

 

[Jeremy B.]

Hi,

I have been doing some research for the last day so that I can give you a 100% positive ID. If you can bear with me for a little while longer I will have some information for you.

Thanks,
Jeremy

 

[coralville]

Jeremy,
Here are some of the links that I used to ID the shrimp:

http://www.reefs.org/library/article/hopkins_redfield.html

http://www.saltwaterfish.com/site_11_03/Peppermint-Shrimp---Group-of-10_424_4_63_93.html

The pic they have in the link below is actually L. rathbunae--

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...?q=lysmata+rathbunae&svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&sa=N



The link below has a pic of wurdemanni and rathbunae side by side-- rathbunae has an opaque body, a dark tail, and no stripes on the belly.

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...?q=lysmata+rathbunae&svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&sa=N

Thanks,
C

 

[coralville]

Another pic--

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...q=lysmata+wurdemanni&svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&sa=N

http://fins.actwin.com/pics/Lysmata_wurdemanni3.jpg

 

[Jeremy B.]

Thanks for the links. Those are pretty much the same ones I come across when I was doing the research. Unfortunately I have not been able to find any written articles anywhere that have been substantiated to guarantee sure fire ways of distinguishing between the two.

All of our stock comes from the Keys, in southern Florida from a farm. From comparing the shrimp we have in stock to the pictures I have found online it does appear that we do have the L. wurdemanni.

Thanks,
Jeremy

 

[coralville]

OK, thanks Jeremy!