Peppermint Shrimp eating Pocillopora

[magranche]

Last week I got a clown goby and figured he would enjoy a nice piece of Pocillopora to perch on...but instead he is living in my frogspawn. On the contrary; my three (well fed) Peppermint shrimp are absolutely going to town on my new coral. It was beautiful when I got it...every polyp was open and thriving. Now about three branches of the coral are completely stripped. I know these shrimp are the culprit as I have caught them picking polyps off and eating them on several occasions. This is my first SPS coral and they have never touched any of my LPS. Have any of you ever had this problem? I am considering bringing my peppermint shrimp back to the LFS but they do a great job cleaning and keeping Aiptasia at bay. Do you think it would just better to bring the coral back or have my shrimp gone rogue now that they have tasted coral?

Thanks for your help and have a wonderful new year!

 

[stunreefer Verified Sponsor]

Are you sure you have Lysmata wurdemanni? Sometimes other species of shrimp are sold as "peppermint shrimp". For example Rhynchocinetes durbanensis are known coral eaters, which I have seen sold at a few LFS as "peppermint shrimp".

 

[magranche]

Yeah they are definitely peppermint shrimp...thats why i'm so confused

 

[zoous]

If they ate his aptasias then they must be peppermint shrimps. After they were done with my aptasias they went after my acans. If your sure all of your aptasias are gone I would take them out.

 

[Mdbbears34]

Had the same thing happen to me ate my acans and hammer after they ate aptaisia now I have to catch the little critters lol any suggestions?

 

[josh4107]

Had the same thing happen to me. Got a couple to eat a few aptasia which they did fairly quickly. I feed sparingly and I think they got hungry and went after my acans' feeder tentacles. Make a trap with a water bottle/two liter bottle. Cut top 1/3 of bottle off and stick it upsides down inside the rest of the bottle. Put food in the bottle and once you see the shrimp go in to get the food take the bottle out. It's how I got mine out. Wasn't hard at all just have to wait them out but if you know where they like to hide just place the bottle close to their hideout.