Evil peppermint shrimp?

[sgrager]

I have had a peppermint shrimp in my tank for a while now. Well today I added 4 lettuce sea slugs(nudibranch). I look in the tank not 5 mins later and my peppermint shrimp is attacking one!!!! Eating him! I took all 4 out... I am pretty sure he is not a camel shrimp... Has anyone ever heard of peppermint shrimp behaving this way? Do you think maybe he was starving and will not eat them now that I fed him? How do I catch him and take him back? My tank is 56 gallons with about 75 lbs of LR so I figured he could find food and only feed the tank every few days as there are no fish in it right now because of another problem... Also once I thought I seen him attack and eat one of the small feather dusters in the rocks...

 

[HappySkittles]

i think peppermint shrimp are used to kill and eat aptasia, nuisance slugs (and other things), and over growth of polyps. after thet i think you have to make sure they are well fed.

hes just probably doing what hes supposed to be doing? he thinks they are bad slugs?

 

[Runner]

I had a peppermint jump all over a bunch of small (~1") brittle starfish I dumped in my tank once and eat them. And another tear up all my feather dusters as soon as I put him in the tank. I only put them in tanks now that I don't care so much about the diversity of small life.

 

[Tennyson]

This happens sometimes. Peppermints will sometimes attack and eat newly added inverts and more often-corals.

Both of mine have attacked my:
-frogspawn
-coco worm
-sea hare

They usually stop after they've done alot of damage to the poor thing, and will usually stop after a day or less.
I learned to let it pass and they stop within a day. But thankfully, both of mine died of age.

 

[Guygettnby]

peppermint shrimp are not reef safe. get him outa your tank so he doesnt cause more damage. only thing i use them for is to eat aiptasia and then they get feed to my mantis shrimp once the aiptasia is gone.

 

[gpd124]

What makes them unsafe for reef tanks?

 

[Runner]

They eat stuff we like to keep in reef tanks. See the above comments.

 

[jhutton]

i have kept them in my tanks for over 5 years, tanks with soft and stony corals, never had a problem with one.
maybe they are hit or miss like other fish and inverts

i personaly never had one touch a single coral, my .02 cents

 

[Tennyson]

Yes, like Jhutton said, they are completely hit or miss, but lately I've been seeing MANY more threads about their peppermints eating corals.

 

[LauraCline]

Mine also attack things added to the tank sometimes even when I distract them with food. They did eat up every bit of aptasia in my tank (and there was alot) but they have also killed Xenia, Anthelia, and a sand sifting star. The star was very healthy at purchase but they began attacking him mercilessly upon introduction. Anytime he would come out of the sand over the next month or so, at least one or two would get on him and start tearing him up. They tore off part of one arm and took some chunks out of his body. Unfortunately, I didn't get him out in time and he died later from the injuries.