Peppermint shrimp eating SPS?

[mightymizz]

Got home tonight and looked into the tank with a flashlight to see one of my peppermint shrimp picking/eating at my pocilipora and where he was picking he was leaving white skeleton.

Are peppermints known to do this to SPS? I just put them, 2 of them, into the tank as I saw a baby aptasia in a spot which I couldnt kill them on.

Please let me know if you have any thoughts regarding this. I mean, the shrimp was leaving a raw white skeleton in his wake.

 

[kevantheman35]

I wouldnt put it past them, mine just completely destroyed one of my acans last night

 

[frankpayne32]

Peppermint shrimp eat corals ALL the time. Some seem to be reef safe but just as many seem to eat corals. I had one that ate EVERY sps frag I put in the tank. Took me awhile to figure it out as he only did it at night. Once I saw him in the act he was out of there. Some people will say that you might have camel shrimp, which you may, but there are still plenty of true peppermint shrimp out there that are decidedly not reef safe. Get that shrimp out. Good luck.

 

[sh0rtcake00]

I was told they were reef safe but as soon as I put in some LPS frogspawn and a torch it went after it like they were candy. I quickly returned them and replaced them with some red skunk cleaner shrimp which have been good citizens to date.

 

[AquaReeferMan]

Just my .02 but not a single peppermint shrimp I have kept in 11 years has ever eaten a healthy coral. IMO most of the time a coral is either dead or on its way out the door and they are just cleaning up the tissue...

 

[JMartin104]

I was told they were reef safe but as soon as I put in some LPS frogspawn and a torch it went after it like they were candy. I quickly returned them and replaced them with some red skunk cleaner shrimp which have been good citizens to date.

Zapped my Torch after removing aptasia but so far, have not touched any other corals.

 

[mightymizz]

It wouldn't allow me to update this thread so I posted the pictures of the damage in the SPS section of forums. Head there if you are interested in seeing the damage done that I watched happen as the peppermint shrimp just kept eating the tissue.

Wonder why it wouldn't allow me to edit my post?

 

[Jakef150]

i suspected it eats my acans too...I have 2..one large that i caught few times...maybe time for it to get out of tank and sell or give it awya

 

[mightymizz]

Like I said, I posted pictures of the damage in the SPS forum since I couldn't edit this thread, or its title to reflect I posted pictures.

Now, just trying to catch them.

 

[frankpayne32]

Just my .02 but not a single peppermint shrimp I have kept in 11 years has ever eaten a healthy coral. IMO most of the time a coral is either dead or on its way out the door and they are just cleaning up the tissue...

I can speak from first hand experience that this is definitely not true. You've been lucky to get the "reef safe" shrimp. I've had perfectly healthy SPS frags eaten.

 

[mightymizz]

Hey, did anyone check the SPS forums for my pics? Wish I just could've updated my original post with them here...

Let me know your thoughts, it's not getting much response, and I am just so shocked at what this shrimp did.

Trying to catch them now with a trap so I don't have to tear down entire rockwork to get them out.

 

[rambochu]

I took a look at your pictures - not nice, but nothing a pocillopora won't regenerate in a week.

What kind of peppermint shrimp are we talking about? There are at least two very similar species that are sold as L. wurdemanni (L. boggessi being the other one - I only know this because I was getting curious as to why one of my shrimp seemed sterile while the other two were breeding like crazy) and I've honestly found the L. wurdemanni to be much more aggressive about food, even ripping it out of a duncan or an acan's mouth long after the coral closed, but I've never seen a shrimp do that.

Good luck catching the little bugger, though. We've never been able to catch any of them.

 

[NatureNerd]

There are many "look-alike" species of these shrimps. It is possible you got something different than you intended. Also, just like everything else in our tanks, in different environments and with different individual animals you get different behaviors.

My experience, over decades, is different than yours. I have always kept SPS and a softy or two and a clam or two and an LTA. I don't have any LPS's. Never did these shrimp attack anything in my tank. After they (wundermanni species) completely eradicated all the aiptasia, they were model citizens. I did make an effort to spot feed them from time to time but that was out of concern for their health not because I was worried about damage.

 

[mightymizz]

Well thanks for looking. It is good to hear that the pocilipora should regenerate that tissue loss.

I was told these were the peppremint shrimp that people try to get to eat their aptasia. It appears that the baby aptasia I had is now completely gone.

I am trying the standard trap but do not have a nice piece of shrimp to put in bottom of trap. Only got some mysis floating inside the trap. By tonight, I should have a better chunk of food for them to go in and try to get.

 

[LouH]

My biggest issues with shrimps in general is that they will reach into the mouths of LPS corals stealing their food leading them to starve to death over time. I'm done with shrimp in a reef tank. Regarding catching them, I've had good luck chasing them around the tank with a stick. Sooner or later they'll start swimming backwards and up into open water where they are easily netted.

 

[NatureNerd]

To catch them, I have put some food in a net. Put it in the tank after the lights go out and watch it. In my case, they went right into the net in the first twenty minutes. I just had to do a quick scoop to pull them out of the tank.

 

[mightymizz]

Bad news first: Got home tonight and the pocilipora was even more picked and destroyed. Both peppermint shrimp were munching on it, so both were culprits and not just one of them.

Good news: I caught them both and they are in a strainer in the sump until I can take them back to LFS in the morning.

I hope the coral will recover, but it is an uphill battle at this point.

 

[kevantheman35]

just found my peppermint on top of my orange monti cap with a nice 1/2 inch white dead circle under him. I guess he was still hungry after his acan breakfast