Feed your peppermints shrimps or else.....

[fishes2889]

Saw the 2 stupid shrimp chowing down on my PPE & RPE a couple weeks ago. Most of the PPE polyps have all of their skirts bitten off and some are not bad. (5 or so polyps) The RPE's are not bad at all actually. Just wanted to give some info out there, if these guys are underfed, they will surely eat your paly's.......

i bought these guys 2 months ago and never had a problem until now. i feed my tank very little food, and dont want to sacrifice nitrates/water changes for some shrimp.

 

[jc_reefer]

I used to have a peppermint shrimp... but i haven't seen him in awhile... im pretty sure my pistol shrimp and goby had a nice big snack one night... Good to know incase i ever to get another one though!

 

[pookstreet]

Actually, peppermint shrimps are reef safe. I've never had any problems with my peps However, a lot of people/LFS confuse camel shrimp with peps. Camels have a hump but the peps don't. Otherwise, they look almost identical. Camels are know to feed on polyps.

 

[fishes2889]

These are not camels kenny, pepps for sure. Not paly safe though/......

 

[ficklefins]

Actually, peppermint shrimps are reef safe. I've never had any problems with my peps However, a lot of people/LFS confuse camel shrimp with peps. Camels have a hump but the peps don't. Otherwise, they look almost identical. Camels are know to feed on polyps.

I'm going to have to disagree as well. I've had peppermints attack a BTA of mine, and I wasn't even feeding the tank! The shrimp went right up to the BTA, snipped a tentacle off and snuck away with it. I was clueless as to what happened so I let it go. The second time I witnessed this happen I decided that was enough so I made a trap.

A real shame to because I had a female peppermint with eggs in there who had to go back to the LFS.

 

[fishes2889]

whoa! didnt know they went after nem's......mine had an isopod on the side of it, wierd...

 

[surfn]

got any pics of what the palys look like? i'm very interested.

any ideas if any other shrimps may do this? like coral banded, or fire shrimps?

 

[fishes2889]

got any pics of what the palys look like? i'm very interested.

any ideas if any other shrimps may do this? like coral banded, or fire shrimps?

after the destruction?

i dont have pics of the affected polyps but all the skirts of some PPE poylps are completely ripped off, but growing back slowly.

 

[fishes2889]

Only other shrimp i have is a cleaner(skunk) and i have never seen him take a munch out of the polyps.

 

[surfn]

so wait, i know what cammel shrimps look like...what do pepermints look like?

i'm wondering if i've had shrimps eating palys, b/c i have also had a problem with missing skirts


what shrimp is this? .....i forgot the name...

 

[greyfox]

I too put two peppermint shrimps in the tank to get rid off the aptasia problem. Once those are gone, they would go after my BTA, dendro, and duncan if I don't keep them well fed. I kept it to myself since I thought nobody would believe me.... I'm not crazy after all. :blob2:

 

[sf_ramsden]

Last one pictured is a fire shrimp. Is part of the cleaner shrimp family.

 

[Who Dah?]

Oh man, I'd love to get a shot of this in action and add it to ZoaID if the "opportunity" arises in anyone's tank!

Gotta photo the good, bad, and the ugly, eh?

 

[SilverSurfer]

We had a local get rid of his peppermint due to fact of him eating his frogspawn

 

[JGoslee]

I have one frag of PPE's with the skirts eaten off of them. I also have 3 peppermint shrimp in the tank with them. I thought it was one of my fish. I'm going to have to keep an eye on them.

 

[sailfin]

That is a blood fire shrimp. I've had one for years and never had any issues. I think we keep forgetting that these creatures are animals and all animals are different. Some coexist well while others make midnight snacks from our corals. This diversity is what interests me though. Just my opinion.

 

[fishes2889]

I have one frag of PPE's with the skirts eaten off of them. I also have 3 peppermint shrimp in the tank with them. I thought it was one of my fish. I'm going to have to keep an eye on them.

Yeah, they especially like PE's....

 

[Kigs!]

The only time I had peppermints go directly after zoanthids/palythoas were when I had XL sized ones. I had a heavy aiptasia infestation problem, so I added about 6 of them. Instead of going after aiptasia, they went after my favorite blues colony.


Now I only have 2 small ones and they are model citizens so far. I think it all depends on wether they develop a taste for zoanthids or not. If they never see a reason to go after them, then it should be fine, at least IME.

 

[Reef Goddess]

Well anyone that gets disgruntled with their shrimp in the future can just send them my way. Leo my radiata lionfish will make quick work of them. ;p

 

[ReeferRob]

Peppermint shrimps are like rats of the ocean. They are oppertunistic eaters and once the aptasias are gone anything is fair game. For me and my tank aptasia control I rely on an Ebili Eye Angel, and would never risk a pep shrimp in my tank with all the time, energy and money I have put into it.