Is this normal? Cleaner shrimp killed peppermint shrimp.

[Stile2]

Well, I got a pepperment shrimp today and after acclimating him I let him go in the tank.

After dinner I was looking for him and found him on the bottom of a rock fighting with the cleaner shrimp. I was about to get a long stick to chase the cleaner away when my Maroon Clown got into the middle. Well the clown grabbed the pepperment shrimp and dragged it over to the RBTA and fed it. The pepperment shrimp is now gone. From the fight to gone happened in about 1 minute.

Do I have a completely freaked out cleaner shrimp? Are they that aggressive?

I feel really bad for the pepperment

Keith

 

[SeanT]

Your clown picked up a LIVE shrimp and fed it to the BTA!?!

Holy Crap, I would have paid to see that!

 

[Elite]

Yeah me too .. wow...

 

[Bebo77]

lol.. did you get it on video?

 

[Stile2]

No pics or video. Like I said it all happened in under a minute.

What is even more surprising is that now the RBTA is opened back up, everything of the shrimp is gone. No shell, no feelers, nothing.

My question, is this behavior normal for a cleaner shrimp? Or do I have a freak?

Keith

 

[Dubbin1]

It sounds like the pepperment was already on its way out.

 

[kappaknight]

Yeah, I bought a Peppermint yesterday and it was ganged up on by my tankmates as well. I think my Dottyback is to blame but I don't know why it picked on that new Peppermint but not the cleaner that's already in the tank...

 

[masterswimmer]

I know it doesn't sound overly sympathetic, but consider yourself lucky. Peppermint shrimp are the devil in disguise, IMO. They are very opportunistic feeders. Any newly introduced coral into my tank (or anybodies) is going through some stress. Peps can sense this and they pounce on the new coral. At least mine did, until I banished him to my fuge.

Never again will a pep set foot in my tank.

 

[Toddrtrex]

I have a pair of cleaners in my 58, when I put my pep. in I notice zero aggression. 6 months later I still have the pep. How did you acclimate it? I am thinking ( like said above ) that the pep was on it's way out.

HTH

 

[grim]

Guys c'mon, use your heads.

Imagine sitting around hungry watchin the game with a bunch of your pals. Your all hungry, getting antsy, and then out of nowhere a platter of shrimp appears. What happens next?

I'm sure you get the point..

:lol:

grim

 

[Stile2]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6496719#post6496719 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Toddrtrex
How did you acclimate it? I am thinking ( like said above ) that the pep was on it's way out.

HTH

I acclimated him a little on the short side. I transfered a bit a water into his bag every few minutes for about 15 minutes. So maybe him was a little weak.
Plus I should have fed everyone in the tank before putting the little shrimp in.

The cleaner shrimp definately did most of the killing, the clown just stole the little guy from the cleaner and shoved it in the RBTA.

 

[fambrough]

A newly introduced peppermint shrimp showed some signs of aggression against my much larger cleaner shrimp. I introduced it a little less than a week ago. After introduction the pep, the cleaner shrimp went into "hiding" and taking very out-of-harms-way positions. This morning I found him on the floor. I really liked the cleaner shrimp and not happy with the pep. To his credit, however, the peppermint ate all the aptasia I could see within the first two nights.

Cheers,
Ben

 

[DrBDC]

It helps to feed the tank right before adding little shrimp or small fish. That is weird for the cleaner to attack a peppermint. Is it possible it was really a camel shrimp, many are sold with wrong id and the camel's will be aggressive. A lot of pep's get a bad rep from that. If it was a camel and it showed aggressiveness to the cleaner, the cleaner may have just taken care of business.

 

[Dan Thrash]

sorry about the shrimp, but i personally would have loved to see the clown feed the anemone like that.