The Great Peppermint Debate: Are They Truly Reef Safe?

[User1]

Outside the various possibilities of ordering or buying what one thinks is a peppermint shrimp only to be later identified as something else which may or may not be what you ordered and reef safe....my take is:

Shrimp and other crustaceans are opportunistic eaters.

To me that means if it is in the tank and there is a chance they can steal it then they will. Said fish or coral may not approve and be irritated. To complicate matters if the coral or whatever is eating it is slow then the crustacean again may irritate it or damage it by the theft of said food.

 

[Ezreal]

Alright heres an update. My pepper from https://www.reefcleaners.org/ has been a model citizen in my reef, aside from picking at a dying clam he has not even taken a second glance at my zoos or gone near any of my other sps. Now I do not and probably will never have any LPS (that are photosynthetic) so... no idea there but hes been well behaved and I'm pleased.

 

[Bleigh]

Little cheat sheet I found

Great thing to share! Thank you!

 

[EMeyer]

I've absolutely had peppermints eat SPS. Never seen them eat LPS or softies.

Theyve done wonders on my Aiptasia. But I got tired of losing pocillopora to peppermints so I got a filefish. He's awesome, eats all the aiptasia... and as it turns out, Xenia too.

I've stopped buy peppermints but if I had a big aiptasia infestation I wouldnt hesitate to do it again.

 

[Bleigh]

I had two. They knocked out the aiptasia on the first night, my cat's paw the second night, an acan colony the third night, and I caught one eating my blast on day 4.

My LFS said they don't feed them. I think it was literally starving. One also had eggs. If I ever get one again, I'm going to feed it super heavy for a few days before I put it in the DT tank... And I may even test whether it will go after a frag in QT after the heavy feeding before I put him in the DT.

 

[Rython]

I had a peppermint that ate my Purple Stylo Frag. Was quite upset. It has almost fully grown back. Took that little dude out of the tank real fast.

Just wanted to add my experience to this thread for anyone else that comes across it. I purchased some L. Boggessi (I think) from my LFS and in two days they ate every purple stylo frag I had in my grow-out tank. It looks like they have been nibbling at the pink stylo frag too, but it isn't decimated like the purples were. So far nothing else has been touched. They did eat one aiptasia too. The pattern of death on the stylo was pretty conspicuous which is why I went looking. It's not the normal STN or RTN, looks more like the flesh has been removed in a very patch-work way, kind of like what you'd expect if something was eating it.