Will peppermint shrimp eat zoo's?

[Anthony Calfo]

Dylan... heehee, you are not the first person to say that oddly enough

MikeS... I'm inclined to agree with you. Crabs even more so than shrimp.

Anthony

 

[Electrokate]

Hi,
I found my first peppermint ate mushrooms and zoanthids, my current 2 in the reef are good so far but I do feed shortly before lights out and they grab whatever the fish miss. It was when I changed to feeding in the morning that the elder shrimp started attacking my desirable fauna.
They can be trained to recognize the feeder/apparatus so if you figure out where they spend their days you can take a long tube, tweezers or pipette and hand them food right before dark to keep them satiated. They learn this trick in about one day if they like what you feed.
I placed my yellow polyps and mushrooms away from their favorite hangouts out in the open where they will feel less safe and have cardinals which patrol at night, this probably makes them nervous. They don't bother the critters on top of the rock they live under so apparently so far so good. Catching a rogue peppermint is not easy either! I think they are great in refugiums where you can place aiptasia infested rocks for them, and they will spawn sending food into the main tank.
I have watched an emerald crab eating acro, tried to get a picture but it was out of focus. The crab was under it and reached up to scrape off the edges of the coral's base. Probably doesn't hurt too much but concerns me a bit. Perhaps our confidence in specialized crustaceans is not warranted... they don't do what we sell them to do! Don't they read the internet? Emerald crabs are valonia eaters! Right... Not one of mine has any desire to touch my bubble algae infestation...
Kate

 

[Pyrrhus]

anthony, are you referring to the common cleaner shrimp as well in the "not reef safe" designation?

 

[Anthony Calfo]

Yep... the entire genus Lysmata, although admittedly the cleaners are somewhat less risky than the Peppermint species.

Many behave themselves indefinitely when alternate foods are plentiful, but all are opportunistic when hungry, and some are just plain unsafe from Go.

They are rather selective though... nipping larger polyped corals and polyps in particular and leaving many/most other corals alone.

 

[elvis]

I have a blood shrimp and a cleaner shrimp in my reef and they don't seem to bother anything. I had a peppermint but about 2 days ago my flame hawk had half of him in his mouth. I guess he won't be eating my zoo's.

 

[plack]

my peppermint shrimp is developing a taste for yellow polyp's but I have hand fed him a small piece of dried shrimp pellets and he grabs it out of my glove immediately time will tell he is being watched .

 

[carneyguy]

i bought 2 pepermint shrimp for 10$ each. my star fish ate them the first night

 

[BlackRed+Yellow]

I also have a love/hate relationship with these shrimp.

I bought eight of them and they totally took care of my aiptaisia problem....took care of a small squamosa clam too!

 

[Electrokate]

Update on my 2 peppermints: one got eaten by a mushroom, other died but first they decimated the yellow polyps. Bought some more peps to breed, they are in a 20 in the fishroom. Hard to get the babies, will have to move them to a 10 with sponge filter. Now training all my shrimp to eat sinking pellet foods like shrimp pellets (cannibals) or spirulina wafers for FW fish. They love them and the fish don't try to steal them. Also have one shrimp in a 30 and it's annoying, keeps reorganizing. I get up in the morning and loose frags are under rocks. I think he drags them down to taste and discards. Zo's must taste bad. That one doesn't eat the yellow polyps and I never feed him, but maybe I should... I think he is eating ricordea.
Kate

 

[Elmo18]

My female GSM clownfish seems to like eating peppermint shrimp. Nice expensive dinners I guess

- Ilham

 

[Electrokate]

I think maybe one or two of my peppermints got eaten by fish as well, but then they will eat eachother. When they moult I guess they are too tempting. MMM peppermint sushi! I know I like raw shrimp... Like it with the rice and a bit of sweet chilli sauce though. And the head deep fried. That's the best part.
Boy is that OT.
Kate

 

[alison]

rotten peppermints

Tank arrangement plays a big role.
Try putting softies higher up in the tank (on top of a rock formation, whatever) so that the larger fish will scare them off (if they don't eat them). I also found that clowns and peppermints don't get along well, especially when they're in lower areas of the tank.

 

[Anthony Calfo]

ah... very good point about tank arrangements, Alison. As much as many of us would like to think that it should not make much of a difference (over such a small space as in our aquaria), numerous creatures have indeed shown quirks of space, shall we say. In addition to your example is one of grazers like tangs and dwarf angels that will often show aversion to grazing near the surface of the water. As such... there may be a line of demarcation at which macroalgae is "allowed" to grow near the surface. I guess they aren't convinced seagulls don't know how to turn door knobs

Kate... also great point about the vulnerability of crustacea post-ecdesis. Indeed, many are sensible enough to hide for some days after a molt. The ones that aren't smart enough win Darwin awards

And finally... Ilham: Premnas clowns are just brutal. Some are satanic. Females are even worse Joking aside... these are large (adult size) anemonefishes and they have even larger territorial drives. They generally get more aggressive in time (the female Premnas, that is to say... not "females" at large The gentler sex in homonids seems to get smarter and kinder in time At least as long as their mates hold up their share of the household chores and try to keep flatulence to a minimum).

discuss...


Anth