peppermint shrimp + zoa's

J

Jason1

Member
Background info: tank is going on 3 months old. I have 3 peppermints in the tank, 1 blood, 1 scarlet (all get along quite well). I just introduced my first piece of coral, a zoa frag with probably about 10 polyps on it.

Anyways, I wake up this morning, and 2 of my peppermints take a couple stabs at the closed coral. I thought these animals were supposed to be reef safe? Getting them out of the tank is going to suck if I have to lol.
 
J

Jason1

Member
I have one purple firefish, 1 watchman goby, 1 hectors goby, about 10-12 hermits, 3 emerald crabs, and 10-12 snails. the shrimp i have are one scarlet cleaner, 1 blood (fire) shrimp and 3 peppermint shrimp.

I watched the peppermints mess with coral when i got up. I just got back to the office after checking the tank on my break. The polyps have not opened :(
 
cindyp

cindyp

Active Member
Hi Jason the reason I asked what you have is b/c I have one emerald crab and I have with my own eyes seen him rip pieces off my zoa and eat aleast four of my snails.we saw him take a swipe at one of the fish as it swam by.(reef safe ?)they say that they are supposed to be reef safe but I have been doing some reading and found out that they can not live on alge alone and if they are hungry they will eat what ever is available I would imagine shrimp would be the same way both are scavengers. what I plan on doing is getting some pellets to throw in the tank in the evening when the shrimp and crab start coming out to feed and see if that helps.I have seen my shrimp sitting on top of the coral but there was no damage done.but keep a serious eye on your emerald crabs I found that they are the problem. as far as reef safe I guess they are for the most part unless they are not getting enough to eat.heres a thead I was reading this morning..
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/mobile-inverts/41850-beware-emerald-crabs.html
 
BentMyWookie

BentMyWookie

Member
I had 2 peppermint shrimp in my tank for a couple months, they did a nice job with aptasia, but i put some aussie acans in and they absolutely tore them apart. They completely demolished several heads, so out they went, luckily my acans have been recovering nicely.

so i think its entirely possible that your peps are pickin at your zoos. if you want to remove them you can build a simple trap out of a plastic water bottle (do a search on here for more details), I tried to get my peps out of my tank for hours at a time with a net and food with 0 luck, I made the trap and they were both out of the tank in 30 mins!
 
degibson84

degibson84

Active Member
when my father added his zoo colony rock his peppermint shrimp was picking at some food peices on the rock.
 
J

Jason1

Member
yungreefer2410 said:
they might be camel shrimp. they look very similar. post a pic of your shrimp so we can see
Click to expand...

Sadly, i dont have a nice camera to take pics with, but ill try to get a couple shots with the old point and shoot when i get home.

I do know for a fact that these are peppermint shrimp. here is a picture i found on google = peppermint shrimp

Camel shrimp have a pretty distinct hump on their backs and have a more prominent red color with defined white stripes (usually). my shrimp have no such hump and are more transparent (i have 3 of these little buggers in my tank).

This incident has actually made me stop being lazy and try to get on buying/making a refugium for my tank, which is something i had planned on doing a long time ago. These shrimp were the first things i bought for the tank and i would rather not take them back to the LFS if i dont have to...placing them in a refugium would be ideal.

While im on the refugium topic, does anyone know a place to buy a pre-made refugium for a decent price or know someone who makes them, or do you have one for sale? I havn't had a chance to do much research on them so im really not even sure what size refugium i would need (37 gal tank).
 
BentMyWookie

BentMyWookie

Member
check out this ebay store, they sell factory second stuff from CPR aquatics, (scratched, blemished stuff in perfect working order)

eBay My World - amekaaquatic

Im pretty sure these guys work directly with or for CPR, as I was refered to them by CPR aquatics, all their items carry the same warranty but are significantly cheaper!
 
J

Jason1

Member
Sorry about the image quality, but its the best i can do until my friend lets be borrow his SLR again =/

Here is a quick pic of the Peppermints:
IMG_2536.jpg


Here is a pic of what they did to my coral =(
IMG_2519.jpg


Good news! the polyps have started to open back up just a little tiny bit as you can see in the picture. Originally the entire piece of rock the that coral is on was covered. They ate a hole in the middle also.
 
BigJay

BigJay

Well-Known Member
yes those are peppermints and yes they can severly pester soft corals to the point of death. IMO they are not reef safe and should not be sold as such. Its not new information either, its been known for at least the last 2 decades. A group of peppermints shredded one of my first carpet nems in a matter of hours. Of course the nem could have been weak but it never was giving a chance to recover. Sick corals don't need help to get to death.
I'll never have another peppermint shrimp in any of my tanks again. Honestly I'm done with skunk cleaners too that will rob food from your corals and they don't do it politely.
Not all peppermints will eat softies but there are many triggers that can cause them to go nipping. The peppermints are cheap and for the sake of your corals I'd remove them and donate them to the LFS or maybe trade them. Or another option is set up a 10g for those rocks that have aptasia on them. Just set them in the tank for 12-24 hours and monitor to make sure no corals are getting pestered and let them clear the rock of aptasia then put the rock back in the DT.
 
J

Jason1

Member
BigJay said:
yes those are peppermints and yes they can severly pester soft corals to the point of death. IMO they are not reef safe and should not be sold as such. Its not new information either, its been known for at least the last 2 decades. A group of peppermints shredded one of my first carpet nems in a matter of hours. Of course the nem could have been weak but it never was giving a chance to recover. Sick corals don't need help to get to death.
I'll never have another peppermint shrimp in any of my tanks again. Honestly I'm done with skunk cleaners too that will rob food from your corals and they don't do it politely.
Not all peppermints will eat softies but there are many triggers that can cause them to go nipping. The peppermints are cheap and for the sake of your corals I'd remove them and donate them to the LFS or maybe trade them. Or another option is set up a 10g for those rocks that have aptasia on them. Just set them in the tank for 12-24 hours and monitor to make sure no corals are getting pestered and let them clear the rock of aptasia then put the rock back in the DT.
Click to expand...

The aptasia that i had they took care of the first day they were in the tank. I have decided on moving them to the refugium as soon as i get around to making it ;)

These guys also swarm or sick or injured fish. Hopefully the bottle trap will work for me...
 
J

Jason1

Member
BentMyWookie said:
I had 2 peppermint shrimp in my tank for a couple months, they did a nice job with aptasia, but i put some aussie acans in and they absolutely tore them apart. They completely demolished several heads, so out they went, luckily my acans have been recovering nicely.

so i think its entirely possible that your peps are pickin at your zoos. if you want to remove them you can build a simple trap out of a plastic water bottle (do a search on here for more details), I tried to get my peps out of my tank for hours at a time with a net and food with 0 luck, I made the trap and they were both out of the tank in 30 mins!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the idea...

Shrimptrap.jpg


shrimptrap2.jpg


these shrimp dont stand a chance. ;)
 
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