Do Peppermint Shrimp eat Acans?

Uslanja

Active Member
Good Evening!

I placed an Acan Frag in my tank 9 days ago. The frag was looking very good, plumping up and growing. I’ve been real happy with the frag. Tonight I just returned home and looked in my tank to see one of my peppermint shrimp digging forcefully at one of the acan polyps. I’ve noticed that the polyp is being eaten by the peppermint. What was a good size polyp this morning in now 2/3 gone. The other polyps on the acan are sending out white streamers. I’m not sure what is happening. DO peppermint shrimp eat acans? Could there be something wrong with the acan and the peppermint is just cleaning? But the frag was looking real good 12 hours ago. I’m hoping the peppermint doesn’t start on some of my other corals.

Dave
 

reeferman

Well-Known Member
if that acan had eaten lately,peppermints are notorious for robbing food.they will dig their arms down mouths and take the ingested food away.peppermints are hit and miss as far as being coral safe,they are really rough with their victims.i had one that would tear chunks out of my dendros mouths to get to the food.if the acan was dying,then he was just cleaning up.if he was real rough with it,then he could have caused its demise.sorry to hear about your acan though,maybe it can make a comeback.btw,peppermints are easy to catch with the homemade jar trap
 

Uslanja

Active Member
Hi gareeferman! I know what you mean about the peppermints, they do a great job keeping things clean but they sure do it with a frantic passion! They are leaving the acan alone now and I've moved it to a differnt place just incase the acan was failing. Although it looked good the last time I saw it before the peppermint was tearing at it. Hopefully it will do well and be left alone in its new location. Thanks for the help!
Dave
 

molsen187

Member
there are different opinions on this. i for one do not have any peppermint shrimp because i've read to many post here and on other sites about peoples acans getting eaten by peppermints. i know some people that have never had an issue with theirs as well. its all really luck of the draw. i have to much cash invested in the acans to warrant the risk of adding a peppermint but would try it if i only had one or two in there.
 

reeferman

Well-Known Member
your welcome and hopefully the acans gonna be alright.i dont have any ps since the last month,havent seen him in a while.they seem to act more aggressive when there is a few of them like a wolfpack.
 

Uslanja

Active Member
Our peppermints (we have 2, they are even named; Peppi and Lapue. I know, goofy but we have some much fun with our reef and the cornball names seem to make us more connected to it!) have been great cleaners. They might just be cleaning a failing coral, but almost one whole head has been torn apart and when I was watching the shrimp was definitely passing something to his mouth. But, as of now they are leaving the acan alone. We target fed the acan this morning and a few of the heads (or are they polyps?) held on to some frozen mysis shrimp and ate them, so hopefully it will perk back up! We're keeping our fingers crossed!
Dave & Tracy
 

reeferman

Well-Known Member
just watch when the lights go out,thats usually when shrimp go raiding!make sure they dont steal his food,they can get it out even if it has been ingested for hours.thats usually when they hurt the coral also.but if the coral was sick they could of just been doing their job as you said.
 

seafansar

Well-Known Member
My peppermint shrimp ate my acans. I couldn't figure out for the longest time why my acans were dying and finally I saw them eating them one night. I removed the shrimp and my acans have been doing great ever since. Sadly, I lost about 4 frags before I finally figured it out.
 

Tab964

Member
I have 2 pepermint shrimp and they did a great job on my Aiptasia. I now only have them in my overflow and sump. One night I saw green irridescent things floating in the tank, only a few. Then I turned on the white night lights and saw they pepermint shrimp cutting the tenticles off my frogspawn. I moved the coral and the a few days later saw it at a acan moved the frag and now he was down the the mouth of my superman mushroom. I had no problems when I had the Aiptasia but now I have none in the tank so they are moving on to other things. The Shrimp do not know what to eat and not eat but I will not buy any more of the pepermints it is easier to use lemon juice. All shrimp are food robbers. The worse for me are my blood shrimp they steal it from my dendro, and my Sebae. Luckily the other side of the tank I have an open brain and RBT which are in then perculas area and they keep the shrimp in line if they get to close.
 

Uslanja

Active Member
Well, the Acan has been consumed! I'm still not sure if the frag failed and that is why they ate it or if they are terrible little creatures! We spot feed our mushrooms and Ricordea and have watched the peppermints open them up and steal the food right out of their mouths, sometimes reaching in their mouths quite deep! Our tank is primarily a softie (if I understand what softies are) and maybe the environment just wasn’t right for an Acan. We will be keeping an eye on these little heathens!
Thanks for your help everyone!
Dave & Tracy
 

michael_cb_125

Well-Known Member
Something to consider:

Shrimp are opportunistic scavengers. If under fed they will look for alternative food sources, i.e. corals.

Also, there are a few other shrimp species that closely resemble peppermint shrimp that are not safe with corals, one of which is the camel shrimp. Many times these shrimp are mixed together in LFS and sold under one common name (Peppermint).

~Michael
 

Msigler

Member
Gareeferman- could you tell me about that trap? Or post a link. I need some pocillipora eating peppies gone. Either that or I am getting a nice big dottyback.
 

malau

Member
My peppermint shrimp not only helping me to clean the Aiptasia but also started eating my zoo... so I moved them to another tank....
 

IXL

Member
Gareeferman- could you tell me about that trap? Or post a link. I need some pocillipora eating peppies gone. Either that or I am getting a nice big dottyback.

Forget the trap ... Just get a Angler to do the job .... :)

* WARNING * Anglers are not! I repeat Are Not.... Going to Play nice! All Living things in the Tank will be treated Equaly !
 
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