Peppermint Shrimp

DianaKay

Princess Diana
RS STAFF
I just added three (hopefully Aiptasia eating!) Peppermint Shrimp to my RSM 250 a few days ago:
image.jpg
And I have not seen them since!! I've not seen any dead body parts either.
Seems like they just vanished. :ponder2:
Strange because that's exactly what the LFS owner told me would probably happen when he was bagging them up for me. Being one who never believes much of what the LFS says, I'm still not knowing what to think. :ponder2:

My questions are
To you people who have them:
Do you ever see them?
When do you see them?
Where do they hide?
Do they come out when you feed your fish?
 

DianaKay

Princess Diana
RS STAFF
That's what I wonder too....How do you even know that they are in there? I am thinking about going back over to the LFS & getting 3 more & using them as a search party. I could put them in and THIS TIME watch where the go for the 1st few hours.
I don't think any of my fish would have eaten them. But I do have a Cleaner Shrimp that could have eaten them & hid the leftovers.

:dunno: It is a mystery to me :dunno:
 

mtsully71

Well-Known Member
Morning Diana, my 1 cent here. In my experience they are relatively shy, don't venture far from their chosen spot and mostly show nocturnal activity. They are pretty small and can get into about any spot. Give em time and don't ask for candid photos and I think slowly you will start seeing them more as they figure out they won't get eaten :shark4:
 

DaveR11

Well-Known Member
I call my peppermint shrimp 'skulker' as that is what it does best. I do see it peering out of its favourite cave and it will venture out a little when the food goes in particularly if it is Mysis but it is a secretive thing.... My cleaner shrimp don't bother it. They use very different parts of the tank - the cleaners up on the rocks showing off and skulker skulking.....
 

Oxylebius

Well-Known Member
They are nocturnal and won't come out during the day. Sometimes you may see them venture out when you feed the fish. I've read that you won't be able to keep more then two in your sized tank or smaller. If you have three, two of them will pair up and will proceed to pick on the third one. Sometimes this end with the third one dying. The larger the tank the more you can keep b/c there is enough space for them to stay away from each other. I've only kept two at a time in my tank and it works well. Had them for years.
 

DianaKay

Princess Diana
RS STAFF
I've looked day & night....still have NOT SEEN THEM.
The Aiptasia that I'm watching has NOT disappeared either.
:pityparty:DANG IT!!! :pityparty:
 

DianaKay

Princess Diana
RS STAFF
I HAD ONE Peppermint shrimp in the beginning of my tank & it took out all the Aiptasia that I saw in my tank. It was also easy to find any time that I watched the tank. Unfortunately, I also had a Coral Banded Shrimp that was a terrorizor. The CBS killed the peppermint and won a free trip back to the LFS. :smile:
I'm thinking today would be a good day for going to get more of these because I just need to know they are in there!! :rolleyes2: :winky:
I want to sit & watch where they go if it takes all day & half the night :nyanya:
 

tank stalker

Active Member
I believe there are several different families of peppermint shrimp only one of which eats aips Diana. I had fine that absolutely destroyed my aips problem then fed himself to my carpet nem :-\

something smells fishy
 

Adrienne

Well-Known Member
Have you considered a CBB instead? Or, if you can't keep one permanently in the tank due to stocking maybe someone will loan you one.
 

DaveR11

Well-Known Member
The few Aiptasia I had lasted maybe 2 or 3 days after the single peppermint I bought went into the tank....
 

bazmackem

Active Member
Mine came with the tank, was always about then after two weeks disappeared! Nothing else in the tank at the time... Never seen it since!
 

DianaKay

Princess Diana
RS STAFF
Have you considered a CBB instead? Or, if you can't keep one permanently in the tank due to stocking maybe someone will loan you one.
I'm at my limit on Fish stock....I have 8 fish & they have all been in my tank over a year. They are getting big & keep my tank looking like a busy reef.
I will keep trying to get the right peppermint shrimp for the job.
It would be awesome to not have Aiptasia as a pest but look at them more as food source for the resident peppermint shrimp. (Even if I never see the critter!)
 

rostervandross

Active Member
Diana, I had the exact same thing happen. Dropped in my new peppermint shrimp and I was convinced he was promptly eaten. That was about a month ago. When I went into my LFS (Aquarium Oddballs in Tulsa) this weekend to get supplies for my tank conversion I shared my concerns about my new shrimp and they told me the fish I have are all damselfish and would not bother a shrimp and that it's highly likely he's still in there somewhere and would only come out at night. Sure enough I saw it out and about last night. And as I prep my tank for the swap today I found where he lives in a large empty shell.

Try and comb your tank for them late at night. They are very hard to find.
 

DianaKay

Princess Diana
RS STAFF
Well, I've put in a total of FIVE now, I used the red lens on my flash light last night but didn't see any of them. Did see some snails that I didn't know where in there tho! (Good snails that stay under the sand) :thumbup:
At least if something is eating them, they were only $8. each....LOL!! :D :yummy:
I'll give them more time....seems the Aiptasia is not my biggest problem right now anyway. :confused:
 

cracker

Well-Known Member
Miss Diana, In the past I have added cleaner shrimps. They went into hiding and molted. I think the stress of the move kinda forces this to happen. Perhaps they are just hiding out until they do their thing.
 
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