Peppermint Shrimp Views
Lysmata wurdemanni, also known as the peppermint shrimp, is a common species of shrimp. It is a reef safe cleaning animal which consumes parasites and dead or diseased tissue from other animals,[2] and is therefore used in salt water fish tanks. It reaches 7p centimetres (2.8n in) in length,[2] and is named for the bright red stripes on its otherwise translucent body, which are reminiscent of peppermint candies such as a candy cane.[2] Its eggs, by contrast, are bright green.[2]
For the first three years of trying to spawn and raise Peppermint shrimp, I could never get the shrimp larvae to survive more than a week or so before they died en masse. Recently, however, I was able to rear them to 5 weeks before they died by feeding copepods, in addition to baby brine shrimp (bbs) and plankton flake food. Here's my hobbyist's tale.
Approximately three years ago, I obtained two small Peppermint shrimp, Lysmata wurdemanni, from a local fish store. Since then I've been able to capture roughly half of the larvae (about 50 larvae captured) almost every month. No special attention is given to the adult shrimp. Generally, frozen Mysis and brine shrimp are fed to the tank every day, as well as Tahitian Blend algae paste (see note 1). The adult shrimp will generally eat anything that they can catch and tear apart with their pincers. The shrimp are full sized adults (3 ") ,and regularly produce free swimming larvae every month (about 100 larvae at each event).
The Peppermint Shrimp, also known as the Veined Shrimp, or Caribbean Cleaner Shrimp, is part of the cleaner shrimp family, but is considered to be more of a scavenger. Its yellowish white body has several distinctive longitudinal red stripes. The Peppermint Shrimp is sometimes confused with its Pacific cousin, Rhynchocinetes durbanensis, which has a pointed nose and inter-spaced white stripes over its body.
Peppermint Shrimp Images
