Peppermint Shrimp Warning

[rleechb]

So I had a bit of an aiptasia problem. Nothing major, but enough to irritate me (kalking 5-6 every month). I decided that a good route would be to purchase a few peppermint shrimp. From reading on RC, i figured a good number would be 3 for my 58G mixed reef. Anyways, I added three, and within 2 days, all my aiptasia were gone (only had a few though). I was pretty stoked. Anyways, I just noticed yesterday that a few of my red yumas are looking horrible. I haven't caught the little bastards in the act, but I'm pretty certain it's them.

Any hints as to how to catch these guys? They're pretty timid.


For those of you considering them for aiptasia... I really don't recommend them.

P.S. No, they are not camel shrimp.

 

[rustybucket145]

 

[illal]

how are you so certain its them??? ive got 3 in my 55 gallon and never had a prob b4 ..... have u checked your parameters???

 

[six.line]

I'd watch vigilantly to catch them in the act first. It's pretty convincing, but still circumstantial.

The same fish trap rules apply. It's tough and it takes oh so long to finally get them. Just look up DIY fish traps and you'll find what you need. Oh-- if you catch them, try putting them in the sump for a few days and monitor the ricordia progress. If the ric's improve, then you have your culprits. If they don't, then you have more information to work with.

Good luck. Glad to hear the aiptasia's gone.

 

[Dr.FuManchu]

Mine just ate a purple tip hammer coral frag. It ate half of the polyps. Next water change he is being booted from the tank.

 

[Sk8r]

Just put a piece of raw shrimp in your hand and put it in the tank. He's likely to come to it, and you just close your hand and pop him in a bucket for return to your lfs. Mine have had spates of misbehavior, but became model citizens. I feed large sinking pellet for them occasionally, and they stay fed and happy, and away from mischief.

 

[r00onmac]

i think ive posted this a million times... i may make it my new signature...

my peppermint is the worst tank inhabitant ever... he has killed BTAs, zoos, blastos, carnation coral, and the list goes on... i think he eats a snail a day just to **** me off... he can eat almost 1/4 a cube of mysis by himself and still feel the need to pull it out of my rics, torch, frogspawn, and hammer... Luckily for my LPS my clowns are becoming more protective of their hosts so hes been kept at bay a little more lately...

if you (or your finace in my case) arent attached.... toss them... my suggestion is to get them out in the open with food and net/grab it... mine is out all the time and will eat off my hand so im sure i can catch him pretty easily...

 

[kfowler]

In the US Court's case of Home Aquarist vs. The Peppermint Shrimp gang, I give you Exhibit A:

Resulting in Exhibit B:

The Peppermint Shrimp Gang was found guilty of molesting and assulting said Frogspawn and sentenced to life in some other guy's aquarium.

Peace has been restored in my tank and the Frogspawn is doing fantastic.

BTW, I didn't have to treat a single aiptsia when I had the shrimp. Back to Joe's Juice.

 

[kfowler]

As far as catching them, they're very easy. Take a peice of food and put it in your fish net. They will come out and walk into the net to grab it. Quickly life the net out. They are fast so be quick. I caught all three of mine in five minutes.

 

[falconut]

I used the same method as kfowler, but I don't agree that it's easy. Mine only came out at night, so I had to use a flash light and light the area indirectly, direct light and he would go back into the rocks. Mine appeared very smart too. At first, he came out to the net, never went into, just stayed on the edge. I missed him the 1st time and he wouldn't get that close again.

I tried this for 3 days, usually for an hour or two, until I got too anoyed. I would just leave two nets, my hand and food in one net in the tank and wait. The third day he finally came out the side of the rock work and moved to a spot where there was no hole. I managed to get a net infront and behind him, so he started swimming, went to the corner and I got him. He went back to the LFS.

He was bothering or semi-eatting Zoas & Yellow Polyps. I noticed when I got back from vacation that the Zoas had shorter lashes and so did the Yellow Polyps. They were looking great within a week of removing it. And no mine wasn't a camel either.

Just have to be patient. It might not be that easy. HTH

 

[Slamajama]

gotta eat something i guess.lol

 

[christpuncher]

Funny that this came up today. I just put a nice zoa in my tank and noticed the shrimp went to it immediately. I think its time for mine to go too.

I will give them credit for eradicating the aiptasias in my tank though.

 

[mjg1961]

Kfowler: Unbelievable. My frogspawn "disappeared" about 6 months ago and I have never been able to figure out exactly why. It was right about the time that I changed some of my PC bulbs and I thought I somehow had bleached it from too much light (although that never made much sense to me since I have been using the same type of replacement bulbs for over three years now). It slowly but surely has been recovering with new stalks but never seems to bloom the way it used to. It was my first coral and was never a problem.

Your pictures stirred my memory. That is also about the time that I placed two peppermints in the tank to get rid of the aiptasia (which they wiped out thankfully). I very rarely see the shrimp. Every so often I will see one hanging upside down under a piece of live rock. Do they feed mostly at night with the lights out? I'm wondering if you've solved the riddle for me. I'm not even sure they are still alive, it's been about a month since I saw one of them. Never had a re-occurance of aiptasia since however.

 

[kaihonu82]

yup...I had a peppermint shrimp...ate all my snails...he was definitely more trouble than what he was worth..

live and learn

 

[kfowler]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9288803#post9288803 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by mjg1961
Kfowler: Unbelievable. My frogspawn "disappeared" about 6 months ago and I have never been able to figure out exactly why. It was right about the time that I changed some of my PC bulbs and I thought I somehow had bleached it from too much light (although that never made much sense to me since I have been using the same type of replacement bulbs for over three years now). It slowly but surely has been recovering with new stalks but never seems to bloom the way it used to. It was my first coral and was never a problem.

Your pictures stirred my memory. That is also about the time that I placed two peppermints in the tank to get rid of the aiptasia (which they wiped out thankfully). I very rarely see the shrimp. Every so often I will see one hanging upside down under a piece of live rock. Do they feed mostly at night with the lights out? I'm wondering if you've solved the riddle for me. I'm not even sure they are still alive, it's been about a month since I saw one of them. Never had a re-occurance of aiptasia since however.

Mine were quite active. Especially during feeding time. They were very agressive toward any food that was dropped in the tank. They all were also pregnant. I have no idea if that played a part. Bad mood swings? I only have a 20g so they were pretty easy to find. I do know they were active at night though.

When I first introduced the Frogspawn, one shrimp immediately started picking at it. I watched in horror as small flourescent green pieces started flying around the tank. At first I hoped that they were just picking off dead or dying tissue. I heard they will do this. Alas, the damaged increased over the next two days. So I banished them to my fuge and then traded all three for a nice little Kenya Tree.

 

[mjg1961]

I rarely see mine. Based on falconut's response though, his exhibited the same behavior. Maybe it's that New Jersey strand of Peppermint Shrimp! I'm going to search with a flash light tonight and see if I can see them. So far, they have only touched the frog spawn. I really don't miss my ritual with Joe's Juice though.

 

[Ironman]

I guess I've been lucky with my two. They've never touched my zoos, button polyps, green open brain, or snails.

 

[rstark33]

hmmmm, lets think abou this, we put a shrimp into our tank to eat an anemone (aiptasia). It then eats all of those and moves on to other things that are just like anemones we but that we like; lps, xenia, other anemones, mushrooms...
CAN YOU BLAME THE SHRIMP????

Personally in a previous tank I had 3 model citizens, only ate aiptasia and nothing else other than fish food. If they nibbbled on other things, it would be my fault not theirs.

Its amazing how everyone raves about how much stuff is on their live rock, but then everyone complains/battles things like aiptasia.

Personally I won't set up another tank with 100% LR. I just set up my last with 120 lbs of dry rock, and seeded 13 lbs in a friends tank (no aiptasia there) and bought a 2 pound piece from a lfs that I carefully ispected for aiptasia. No aptaisia and no unwanted animal to control the growth of something I don't want in my tank.

Long live the peppermint shrimp, just leave them in the ocean!

 

[matter1331]

this is news to me, I've never had a problem with peppermint shrimp in the 4 years that I've kept them in tanks. You know, there are two different species commonly found in the trade. There's one from the west coast of the US that isn't as good with aptaisia and one from the Gulf of Mexico that is much better with aptaisia. Perhaps the west coast species is to blame for this? The majority (if not all) of the peps I've kept have come from the Gulf (caught them myself), and like I said, no problems with eating snails/corals.

 

[Kigs]

most of the times, they might be cleaning new additions, which might seem as an attack on the corals. in my experience, it is crucial where the stock comes from. certain species of peppermints have more tendency to attack corals than the others. especially, when they are in bigger groups, they get more ballsy.