Keeping peppermint and skunk cleaner shrimp together?

[DreamerTheresa]

Is this doable with no ill effects (ie - over competition, eating each other, etc)?

Tank is 125 gallons with 175 +/- lbs of rock.

 

[acrodave]

should be fine i have kept 2 skunks and one peppermint in a 12 gal. but watch your p.m.s. they can sometimes pick on corals

 

[ccorpse27]

I had one of each and they avoided each other. I think the pep died one day and the skunk ate it.

 

[SuperNerd]

i tended to see the skunk "shoo away" the peppermints whenever they got close. Either that or the skunk was trying to clean them. :lmao:

 

[Ritten]

I've kept them together just fine. Be careful not to get too big of a group of peppermints. IME they tend to get "brave" in groups and pick on corals after lights out.

 

[tankdvr]

Make sure you are getting an actual peppermint shrimp and not a camel shrimp. They look somewhat similar, and many places call both species peppermint shrimps. In my experience, the camels are much more likely to nip at corals than peppermint shrimps are.

The camel shrimp will be much brighter in color, have a pronounced hump on it's back and a sharp beak up front. My description is sorta of crummy though, so just do a google image search for both and you'll be able to spot the differences immediately.

 

[DreamerTheresa]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12456692#post12456692 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by tankdvr
Make sure you are getting an actual peppermint shrimp and not a camel shrimp. They look somewhat similar, and many places call both species peppermint shrimps. In my experience, the camels are much more likely to nip at corals than peppermint shrimps are.

The camel shrimp will be much brighter in color, have a pronounced hump on it's back and a sharp beak up front. My description is sorta of crummy though, so just do a google image search for both and you'll be able to spot the differences immediately.

Thank you. Looked 'em up, and your description was actually spot-on.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12456598#post12456598 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Ritten
I've kept them together just fine. Be careful not to get too big of a group of peppermints. IME they tend to get "brave" in groups and pick on corals after lights out.

What would you consider a "group"? I was thinking of purchasing a pair.

 

[Ritten]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12457262#post12457262 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by DreamerTheresa
Thank you. Looked 'em up, and your description was actually spot-on.






What would you consider a "group"? I was thinking of purchasing a pair.

I had a problem with six in a 54.

 

[acrodave]

i had just the one and it would try and eat the polyps off my sps... and it was a true pms

 

[Am00re34]

i have 5 true peppermints in my 55g and i notice them bothering my corals when they are new. After a few hours they seem to leave them alone. I think they are just checking it out to see what it is.

 

[Cope]

My large skunk cleaner eats peppermint's like candy.
I have not been able to keep peps more than a few days, the cleaner has been in the tank for around 2 years. I also noticed the skunk chasing the peps, that what leads me to believe the cleaner is eating them...?

I'm not sure what else would do it, it could be my Gigantea eating them, but I highly doubt it.

I would like to hear more opinions on this, as i would like to have some peps for aptasia control.

 

[petoonia]

They should be similar in size when added to the tank. I tried to add smaller peps in with my 2 large skunks. The skunks hunted them down within 24 hours.

Now I have 1 pep, and 1 skunk. I added the pep once it got a bit bigger.

 

[wesdaniel]

My 2 skunks killed all of my peps over the course of about 4 or 5 weeks.

 

[pledosophy]

Kept two skunks and 6 peps in a 65g for a few years until I took the system down.

Now the tank has 8 pep's and no cleaners.

JME

 

[jeffreyliu838]

I'm interested in this too. I've got 5 peps in my 20, and I want to add a cleaner. My peps have never bothered coral. Can I add a cleaner without having any casualties? I'm thinking if I get a larger, more mature one, it should be fine.