shrimp eating coral?

[Fredrik Andersson]

Yesterday I bought a tiny catalaphyllia. Now when I was watching the tank I notised that my shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni) was all over it and it looked like it eas eating on the coral?!

So without knowing if it wass a good idea I took the bottom of a plastic bottle (transparent) made a few holes in it for water circulation and put it above the coral.

Was this the right move to protect the coral? Now the shrimp is trying to find a way to the coral

 

[sbash]

I have personally, never had a peppermint eat my coral, however, shrimps do sometimes do eat corals.

One of the most common situations when this happens is improper identification. Peppermints and camels don't really look the same, but sometimes the camels are sold as peppermints.

Here is a link to help properly identify your peppermint:
https://peerj.com/articles/3786/

That said, shrimps are scavengers and quite often 'go after' new additions to simply clean them up, which does look like they are eating the corals.

If you are concerned, build a pop bottle trap to catch the shrimp and sump it, or take it back to the store.

But to actually answer your question, yes, it was a wise move to protect the coral.

 

[xxstitch69xx]

I’ve had some of those shrimp that ate some of the flesh off my brain coral, not sure if they were cleaning dead/dying tissue or just eating it.
This happened the day after I introduced the coral to my tank. Didn’t see them anywhere near the other corals in my tank though. (LA Lakers torch, Trachy brain, Garf Acro, Splatter hammer)
Attached is a pic of the coral that was being eaten.

 

[Fredrik Andersson]

Great and thanks to the both of you!

My shrimp hasnt done anything to my other Euphyllias, so Im having the same situation here as you xxstitch69xx. The coral is quite small so I think I'll have it protected until it has grown a bit. I gave it some mysis now and hopefully it will "blossom" tomorrow