Pepermint shrimp in reef tank? Yes or no

[nathan1986]

I have some aptasia growing in my gf's biocube 29g. It is heavily stocked with frogspawn, octospawn, hammers, favia, acans, torch coral and some zoas. I read mixed things about pepermint shrimp. I in had 2 pepermint shrimp a year ago in a fluval edge that had a bunch of mushrooms and they never touched the mushrooms at all. I currently have 1 pepermint shrimp acclimating but havent added it yet. Debating on adding it or feeding it to my porcupine puffer if i get alot of negative feedback. Thanks in advance, nathan

 

[LiquidCache]

I didn't know anyone ever consider them not reef safe"¦ I've got like 10 in my 265 and they are good little scavengers

 

[toddmau5]

I've never had any negative issues with peppermint shrimp. Took care of my aptasia and then just hung out in a cave for the rest of his days

 

[nathan1986]

I didnt have any negative things happen when i had them either. But for some reason i did some googling this time and it seemed to only bring up horror stories of them wiping out full lps colonies. Thanks for the quick responses!

 

[CuzzA]

I didnt have any negative things happen when i had them either. But for some reason i did some googling this time and it seemed to only bring up horror stories of them wiping out full lps colonies. Thanks for the quick responses!

Probably misidentified as peppermint shrimp when in realty they were camel shrimp and thus the peps get a bad rap.

 

[nathan1986]

Well so far not so good. Its been in the tank for about 4 minutes and already ate 2 stomatella snails lol its defintaly not a camel shrimp as i did extensive google image searching comparing the 2 shrimps

 

[rone_kevin66]

I had one and it ate my cleaner shrimp rt ate a molt

 

[nathan1986]

well it was just on my purple tip hammer. Crappy pic as i had to act fast

 

[nathan1986]

 

[maroonman]

I found out the hard way. I will never add them again.
R.I.P = 2 euphyllias, 1 Ric.
I would never believed it if i didn't see them myself doing it.

 

[nathan1986]

Ya im gonna catch him tonight then drop him in my predator tank. Sorry for the pep shrimp but i value the corals more than him eating them lol

 

[nitr8]

I have a 90 gallon mixed reef with 20+ peppermints. I think CuzzA said it right. Peps get a bad rep due to confusion with the non-reef safe camels or, being shrimp, they are opportunistic feeders meaning you will more than likely from time to time see them stealing food from the polyps which could also be easily confused.

 

[maroonman]

Even if they steal the food..they rip the tissue causing a infection

 

[nathan1986]

Well regardless. After seeing it attack my hammer coral (havent fed the tank in 1 day) ill let everyone know how to catch one of these in the matter of minutes:
Dont waste time with the bottle method youll only catch all your nasarius snails lol
Buy a small shop vac from home depot (keep reciept), simply put the shop vac tube in the tank in a somewhat open area.. the shrimp gets curious and when it gets close turn the shop vac on and bingo no more shrimp in your tank. Clean shop vac and return it. Problem solved

 

[nitr8]

...Clean shop vac and return it. Problem solved

I really hope no one does this. In my eyes and probably the stores as well, that is no different than stealing.

 

[nathan1986]

The lady at the ruturn counter didnt care. I told her flat out its been used. She asked what for. I then told her i used it to remove something from one of my fish tanks, she giggled and printed out a defective item slip and gave me a refund.

 

[Reefpilot11]

Clean shop vac and return it. Problem solved

That's a great idea lol, I did the same thing when I had to fill my tank before I had my ro unit. There's no way I was gonna keep 20 HD buckets

 

[nathan1986]

It sucks he went straight for my hammer coral. Would have been nice to have something in the tank other than just 2 clown fish

 

[CuzzA]

I really hope no one does this. In my eyes and probably the stores as well, that is no different than stealing.

It's ok as long as it's not your business. :uhoh2: You are right, no different than stealing and loses lead to higher prices and stricter return policies. Not a good practice. Hell, the 5 gallon bucket head shop vac should be in every tank owners tool chest anyways. What really ****es me off is when someone returns something and it hasn't been inspected and then is put back on the shelf for me to buy. Which of course ruins your day when you get home, open it and half the parts are missing.

 

[nathan1986]

Well your in luck cause she defected it. No need to worry.