Peppermint shrimp warning tale

[Jekerry]

For other newbies, just want to share my unhappy peppermint shrimp story.

A while back I saw two small aiptasia anenomes in my tank. I tried to kill them with lime juice. They made gin and tonics and chilled. So then I read all these posts about peppermint shrimp eating them. I wanted some anyway so went to the LFS. They had one and I bought it, planning on getting it a friend when they got their next shipment. Age was adorable. Came out and danced at feeding. Ate the aptasia the first week.

Went back and got a second. They were buds at once, doing their little food dance. Loved flakes. All seemed so happy.

But then some of our corals looked ****ed off. Did a water change just in case. Last night some of our corals looked very upset. Then one of the shrimp came out and started feeling up our pocillopara. We watched and noticed he was pulling off polyps! I distracted him by feeding the tank and we did some searching on this forum.

I thought I had done my research! Peppermint shrimp ok, camel shrimp bad. But looks like that is not always true. In particular, they seem to like pocillopora corals! Boo! I am pretty sure they were not camels. Their backs were too smooth.

Anyway, made a trap with a water bottle and removed them this morning. I'm very sad and disappointed because they were so much fun, but can't feed their expensive tastes.

So if you add these guys, watch really carefully! I hope my pocillopora, Broccoli Boy, pulls through. He is pretty cool too.

Jane

 

[lapin]

Kinda like the deer in my yard. They dont read the papers saying that some plants are deer proof and they should not eat them.

 

[jdiddy8384]

I also had a peppermint shrimp that loved eating my corals. Needless to say he is no longer on my livestock list!

 

[Str8linespeed]

Had a similar experience. Some of the peppermints can be jerks.. I had one that was having a feast with all of my acans. Almost killed them all off, finally caught the little bassturd, and it went for a swim in the toilet that night. The other 2 in the tank want nothing to do with my corals..

 

[Navig8tr]

In a similar vein, I had a Lysmata amboinensis cleaner shrimp completely decimate my population of Stomatella snails and harass my BTA's incessantly.

 

[Jekerry]

Had a similar experience. Some of the peppermints can be jerks.. I had one that was having a feast with all of my acans. Almost killed them all off, finally caught the little bassturd, and it went for a swim in the toilet that night. The other 2 in the tank want nothing to do with my corals..

I wish I could tell them apart. I think the first one was fine, but both were in my trap and I couldn't tell them apart. Oh well! My pistol shrimp is a good citizen.