[Firefish]

Will my Fire Shrimp (Lysmata debelius) perform the same function as a Candy cane shrimp (Lysmata grabhami)? My Butterfly fish keeps rubbing on the zfire shrimp. Wondering if I should get a Candy cane shrimp (Lysmata grabhami) and if it would do ok with the Fire shrimp in a 150 with 100+ lbs LR.

[Firefish]

So I guess nobody knows either but that's okay. I watched my butterfly get mounted last night. The fireshrimp crawled on top of him and started cleaning. I love watching, it's so cool.

[kevinpo]

Hello,
Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. If I had to give a percentage I would say about 40% of the time they clean. They hide more on average than the regular cleaner shrimp.

Regards,
Kevin

[Firefish]

Thanks Kevin! It does hide in his little hole in the rock. Pops out every now and then. The butterfly keeps trying to get "cleaned" all day long.

Do you think the fish has a parisite problem because he keeps going over to the shrimp?

It's boggles my mind how a young butterfly knows the shrimp will clean him, that it's friend, not foe.

[Ninong]

I would agree with Kevin that if you're looking for a good cleaner shrimp, then Lysmata amboinensis and L. grabhami are the best choices. Those two are practically identical and may in fact be the same species but for the time being they're still classified as separate species. L. grabhami is the Caribbean version of L. amboinensis and the tail markings are slightly different but that may not be enough to make it a separate species.

All shrimp in the genus Lysmata are "cleaner shrimp" but their behavior in captivity may not always mimic their natural behavior.

[Ninong]

Originally Posted by Firefish

Do you think the fish has a parisite problem because he keeps going over to the shrimp?

Not necessarily. It's a natural behavior.

It's boggles my mind how a young butterfly knows the shrimp will clean him, that it's friend, not foe.

It's instictive behavior that has been hardwired over millennia.

[Firefish]

Thanks Ninong- I thought I remember in my earlier reef keeping days that keeping two of these species in the same tank could be a bad idea... Or am I thinking of a different invert

[Ninong]

Whether you keep more than one species of ornamental shrimp in your tank depends on the size of the tank. These shrimp are all territorial but their natural territory in the wild is not all that large.

Many people do keep Lysmata amboinensis, L. wurdemanni, L. debelius, and L. grabhami in the same tank. I don't see anything wrong with that as long as your tank is large enough and as long as you keep them in twos, not singles.

However, it's always risky to add coral banded shrimp, Stenopus hispidus, to a tank with any of the species in the Lysmata genus because the coral banded shrimp are much more aggressive. Another potential problem is that unlike the shrimp in the Lysmata genus, the coral banded shrimp are not hermaphroditic. If you accidentally put two male coral banded shrimp together, they will literally tear each other limb from limb until only one survives unless you have a really gigantic tank.

[Firefish]

Gotchya- thanks!
It's not a real big tank, only 150. I'd like to keep a couple of cleaner shrimp in there...