Peppermint Shrimp eating SPS

[Oxylebius]

Before the lights kicked on today I caught my peppermint shrimp picking at a new SPS frag. I wasn't sure if the shrimp was just picking off something dead, but at closer look I watched it pluck about 5 polyps out of the calcium skeleton. There are a couple of bald spots now on the frag.

I gave it a piece of nori and it took off to the side and devoured it. Guess the shrimp was very hungry.

This shrimp always comes out scavenging the gravel when I feed the fish but the fish food never hits the bottom, but maybe a few microscopic bits. I need to make sure the little shrimp gets some fish food so this doesn't happen again. And hope this doesn't happen again.

 

[BigAl07]

I'm not saying it's impossible for the PS to be killing the coral but odds are it's just doing it's job and getting the goods before they are too far gone to eat. Remember as a scavenger they are very adept at smelling sick or dead organisms very early on.

Remember the early shrimp gets the worm

I would make sure it gets fed once in a while just to make sure. I drop a "sinking shrimp pellet" into my tank 1x a week for this exact reason.

 

[Oxylebius]

That is what I figured and why I'm not pulling the shrimp out of my tank. I've had peps for over 5 years now, but only had sps for 2 years and this is the first I've seen the pep going for sps polyps. Here is a shot of the frag and the new bald spots. Guess the coral frag isn't doing very well if the shrimp is going for the dyeing polyps.

[URL=http://s1272.photobucket.com/user/MyAquaria/media/IMG_20140418_151923-1_zps0b7e55bc.jpg.html] [/URL]

 

[Steve L]

I had to remove a beautiful frogspawn from my tank a few months ago after my peppermint shrimp decided it was just as good to eat as aiptasia. I watched as it deflated then devoured each tentacle.

 

[sawan20]

They find every animal to eat.

 

[frisbee]

I had a peppermint shrimp go rouge on a small favia frag one time. It was a brand new addition, but by the next morning, the coral was picked clean. So sad...

 

[Oxylebius]

Since this indecent I've made sure the PS has had supplement food and it hasn't touched any of my other sps corals. This particular coral is doing fine and has since grown back it's polyps. So, no serious harm done.