R.I.P. open brain

luke30mm

New member
ok so i purchased an open brain about a week or two ago and after about 3 days i come home to find my peppermint shrimp tearing chunks of flesh off it. .... long story short it ended up dying now i thought that peppermint shrimp were "reef safe" i am in the process of removing them from my tank as i am going to purchase more corals. Has anyone else had problems witht their shrimp and corals????
 
Yes....Peppermints are horrible, at least in my old tanks....I had several clams and a brain killed myself.....They will eat the tissue around the mantle....Stay safe....Scarlet cleaner....Fire shrimp...and the good old coral banded.......Good luck in the future.
 
I'm glad you posted this, I also thought peppermints were reef safe. I have one in my LR curing tank to take care of some aptasia. I would have ended up putting him in my display tank!
 
In my experience they'll only go after stuff that is dying already, which for me was a favia colony and a clam. I think they're very very good at cleaning up bad tissue from newly arrived colonies or spots that (my fault) have been stung. That being said, though, I'm in the process of removing mine because they steal too much food from my lps after feedings.
 
camelback shrimp look very similar to peppermint shrimp and are not safe IMO w/ lps. it is a possibility that your LFS did not know the difference and sold you the wrong thing.
 
I've had problems with them before as well and ended up removing them from the tank.

This topic has come up recently on our local boards. What some of the reefers are finding is the place of collection is making a difference in the aggressiveness of the peps. At least two of our LFSs get them from the same supplier and he gets them from I want to say the gulf of mexico, but I'm not sure.

Many of the reefers in the area have reported success with them as far as eating the aiptasia goes, and haven't had problems with them being destructive.

We decided to take a chance and got a couple for each tank to see how things go, it's only been a week or so and so far so good, they don't even come out of the rocks.

Camel shrimp do look similar, but not identical, I'm positive ours were peps. If these cause any problems they'll find a new home in the sump - then the tank still gets to enjoy shrimp babies :) Our lfs guy did say he would take them back if we needed him to.

Good luck!
 
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