cleaner shrimp question

[Finaddict]

Do I need to keep cleaner shrimps in pairs/groups or r they ok as a single?
I had 2 but lost one over the holidays. :sad:
I have heard they absolutly need 2 or more and that 1 is ok by herself???

[Willow]

you can keep them single for sure, most people i know only have one.

[Kabong]

Yep i only have one and its fine.
A plus side of 2 though is they will supply food for the tank by hatching eggs.

[Delphinus]

They will be OK singly, but I do recommend getting more, their behaviour will be MUCH more interesting to observe as a group instead of just a single individual. The more there are, the more bold they will be. IMHO: Two shrimp are better than one, and 3 or more are better than 2.

Having had (at one time, completely by accident), ordering more than I had intended, thinking I was going to put 2 pairs into 2 different tanks, I somehow ended up with 5. I decided, what the heck, I'm putting them all into one tank. The group dynamics were astounding, they're far more clever than we give them credit for. One example - you could tell one was about to molt by observing the others; they totally knew. I also learned that mating must occur shortly after a molt because man they go beserk on the molting shrimp afterwards (and then suddently the next day one of them would be carrying eggs -- hmmmmmmm). You'll also see cleaning stations get set up if you have a group (you might observe it with a single individual but it's more apparent with a group, IMO).

I've found this to be true for both the scarlet cleaners and peppermints (both Lysmata genus). So I presume this would also hold true for fire shrimp but I would not know about other species of shrimp. The Lysmata sp. shrimp appear to be rather social animals; unusual (IMO), for crustaceans.

[muck]

I Echo Tonys observations. Get a pair at least.

[Finaddict]

thanks guys, I will be on the look out for more shrimps then!!!
Does it matter if the new shrimps r smaller??

[Delphinus]

I don't think so.. should be OK. Worst case scenario they won't hang out with each other ("you dang kids, back in MY day, ....."). Methinks anyhow. Ultimately there shouldn't be any problems amongst themselves..

[muck]

I had 2 large cleaners and added a smaller one a while later and they didn't want to play nice with him. They harassed him constantly. It might be different if you only have 1 and then add another one or two.

[Delphinus]

Interesting! I wonder what would happen if you added more than 1 then, if that would help, or if really they all must be added at the same time and then let to live out their lives. I guess the standard rules of adding a stranger into an established territory applies then. (Sorry for the earlier bad advice then!)

[mr_alberta]

From what I understand, if you have an established pair or group, they won't tank the addition of others very well. Don't know what the scenario is though when adding a group when you only have a single shrimp in the tank.

[kari]

Not that I know anything about this but,
had a pair of cleaners and one fire shrimp for many years. Recently one cleaner took the big dirt nap in the sand bed so I replaced it with a smaller one. Only seen the new shrimp for a few minutes.

[JSTR]

Just my observation, but I started with two yellow cleaners, lost one. Bout three months later replced it with a pair of visable smaller shrimp, one didnt make it the other bonded with the first shrimp - became new group. Recently I added two more smaller shrimpa nd other than they set up on the opposite side of the tank. I havent noticed any ill effects from the first two. Now I have a cleaning station set up at both ends of the reef and my fire shrimp hang out kindof in the middle. All 6 shrimp dont seem to bother each other and just do their own thing. Also have a roup of 8 sexy that took over a top corner, but again no problems so far (knocking on wood).

[adidas]

i'd like to get a large group of them one day