Pepperment shrimp eating corals

[mgerald]

I picked up a new goniopora frag and not even a day later my peppermint shrimp started picking through it and I noticed it was tearing off the polyps I saw green flying all the tank. What was strange is I had a Birds nest frag that what I thought was bleached so I fragged what I could save and put it in a safe place in the tank I didn't think the shrimp would get to and it started doing well again. Then I moved brids nest frag back to front of my tank and it started looking bleached again. After seeing the shrimp eating my goniopora it now makes since he was prob eating my birds nest as well as my Hammer as I had pieces of hammer floating around at one point. Just figured I would share if any one else is questioning what might be eating corals in your tank if you have a peppermint. I ended up putting the shrimp in 165 gal tank I have at work and as soon as I did he got eating alive by a large clown fish and six line in tank Wah wah wahhh. Sad to see him go like that he was a good cleaner but my corals a more delicate and expensive. My crabs snails will have to keep up with the dirty work in the tank now.

 

[aquaworld75]

Did you maybe have a Camel Shrimp? They look like peppermint shrimp, but I think are more prone to eat corals. I have kept peppermints in my tanks without any coral issues. Maybe you had extra good tasty corals


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[mgerald]

You know I'm not real sure I was thinking it was a peppermint because it didn't have really an distinct markings on his body like the camel shrimp seem to have he was just red and looked almost white/clear when out of the tank. It def made me sad he was awesome at cleaning but when pieces of the corals went missing and the goniopora went flying he had to go.

 

[saltwaterwannabe]

I had some peppermints that were nibbling at my acans, eating the centers as well as digging deep in a brain that ended up dieing. Other than the brain, the peppermints only nipped at my acans but eradicated the aptasia I had. They served their purpose well but I ended up guving them away to handle another aptasia problem. Definitely good to watch out for.

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[firethorn77]

I still have Dan's Peppermints, they are aren't nipping at any of my corals.

 

[camellia]

Do you feed them? If they are feed enough they usually are good reef safe citizens.

 

[telsonman]

I had one that ate at my frogspawn. Not too often but he would hit it a few times and I'd see random pieces of bright green on the bottom of the tank. Never bothered any other coral. He ate bristle worms too. Now that I think about it, he was kind of a ****. But anyway, he died randomly. I'll probably never get another one. I have started getting more expensive stuff and I don't want to chance one picking at them.

With the birdsnest, do you have emerald crabs? Sometimes they will chew on them. Also, how big is it? It may be bleaching because of lighting, as in what is lower isn't getting enough light. I had a big piece in my biocube, and it did awful high up. The lower it was the better. I have it in my 75g and its doing awesome halfway up the tank, under a reefbreeder v1. Check your parameters too. They don't like alk swings.

 

[mgerald]

I was feeding Larrys and also pellets 1-2 times daily so was pretty well feed! I only have blue legged crabs and some snails. Birds nest was on sand bed doing fine for over a month water parameters within limits alk was a little low 7-8kh not to bad. I dose 2 part now to keep up but Birds nest frag or what's left is higher now in the tank and with the peppermint now gone we will see what happens!

 

[jennm]

I've seen 'real' peppermints eat stuff like yellow star polyps and soft polyps that look like aiptasia but generally they leave hard corals alone. They could be trying to steal food from the coral polyps and doing collateral damage.

If you don't have aiptasia for them to eat, make sure they do get some food and that should solve the problem, but keep in mind that once any creature gets an appetite for desirable corals, they usually don't stop eating them.

Jenn