MikeandNicole
New member
My local LFS just got a pair in, does anybody have any experience with them?
Emperor Shrimp
- Thread starter MikeandNicole
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AJSTITAN14
New member
Never heard of em.
Any time you see something at the LFS that you have never seen before take a double dose of caution. One LFS tried to sell us a yellow pilot fish for our BC 29. These fish get to be over 2 feet long. A lot of the time the rare or unusual stuff is difficult to keep because of some trait like it get's huge, eats your other animals, is super picky about food etc...
So from 5 minutes of internet searches emperor shrimp appear to live symbiotically with sea slugs and nudibranchs riding around on their backs. Lacking a proper mound I doubt they would do well in captivity.
Any time you see something at the LFS that you have never seen before take a double dose of caution. One LFS tried to sell us a yellow pilot fish for our BC 29. These fish get to be over 2 feet long. A lot of the time the rare or unusual stuff is difficult to keep because of some trait like it get's huge, eats your other animals, is super picky about food etc...
So from 5 minutes of internet searches emperor shrimp appear to live symbiotically with sea slugs and nudibranchs riding around on their backs. Lacking a proper mound I doubt they would do well in captivity.
sjmantis
On the cliff by the sea..
I've had an experience with this species. I was able to make it eat raw shrimp and it ate a lot. Problem was it was always bullied by the more active cleaner and banded shrimps. It just simply disappeared one day and I never saw it again probably due to stress and bullying 
. They are also quite expensive I presume.
As AJSTITAN14 pointed out, they have a symbiotic relationship with nudibranchs and some would say with sea cucumbers as a good portion of their diet consists of the fecal mater secreted by its host nudi/sea cucumber so unless a tank has the capability to sustain the emperor shrimp and its host it is advised by the succeeding article to leave them be:
http://www.liveaquaria.com/PIC/article.cfm?aid=265
Still, only the tank owner can decide if it is worth a shot. after all, it would be more wasteful for such a specie to fall into more inexperience hands (those "beginners" who have yet to cycle their tanks but have the money to buy stuff) though I will not recommend it. It will hide a lot if not given the proper host.
Just my opinion. Kindly read the article through the link posted above
. They are also quite expensive I presume. As AJSTITAN14 pointed out, they have a symbiotic relationship with nudibranchs and some would say with sea cucumbers as a good portion of their diet consists of the fecal mater secreted by its host nudi/sea cucumber so unless a tank has the capability to sustain the emperor shrimp and its host it is advised by the succeeding article to leave them be:
http://www.liveaquaria.com/PIC/article.cfm?aid=265
Still, only the tank owner can decide if it is worth a shot. after all, it would be more wasteful for such a specie to fall into more inexperience hands (those "beginners" who have yet to cycle their tanks but have the money to buy stuff) though I will not recommend it. It will hide a lot if not given the proper host.
Just my opinion. Kindly read the article through the link posted above
MikeandNicole
New member
Thank you for the responses, we did some research online but the amount of info seemed to be lacking. Figured I would find out if anybody had any hands on experience with them. We currently keep cleaner, peppermint and pistol shrimp and have kept coral banded, fire, and camelback (non reef tank) shrimp before.
I have not gotten a price yet but I think we are going to pass, I saw a pair for roughly $180 online and even though my LFS is good, that is still expensive for a pair of half inch shrimp. We also don't have a cucumber or nudis so that is another strike against it.
I have not gotten a price yet but I think we are going to pass, I saw a pair for roughly $180 online and even though my LFS is good, that is still expensive for a pair of half inch shrimp. We also don't have a cucumber or nudis so that is another strike against it.
