Oooo! I'm so mad! The shrimp is going on the grill tonight.

[corrado007]

I'm so mad! I thought I had done all of my homework before making a new addition to my tank. I created this thread Peppermint shrimp and feather dusters to discuss my concerns about adding peppermint shrimp to deal with my aiptasia and everyone was very helpful but it just goes to show that no matter how much caution you practice 1) your lfs can swear it's not a camel shrimp so you go with their "expert" classification of the shrimp and 2) even generally safe shrimp can have anti-social personality disorder. I threw these two shrimp in my tank with the understanding that they were reef safe and they seemed to be. Days passed and they seemed to have eaten most of my aiptasia. Yesterday I saw some weird fleshy tissue with bright green dots floating around in the water column. I couldn't figure out what it was and accounted for all the fish and didn't see any issues with any corals. Today I was on the phone with a friend and while chatting, sat down to look at my tank. I almost fell out of my chair, dropped the phone, and practically dove into my tank swatting at the evil "peppermint" shrimp that was brutally thrashing at and devouring my frog spawn. I couldn't believe how unphased they were by my swatting. They just kept jumping on the coral ripping chunks out of it. I grabbed the coral and moved it to the other side of the tank and proceded to trap the shrimp. 1/2 hour later, water all over me and the floor, I've got both shrimp floating in a breeding cage in the tank. Can't wait to throw another shrimp on the barbi tonight! Here's the two creepy little evil B@$%#^>S in the breeding cage http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...rimpforBBQ.jpg and here's a close-up in case anyone can verify for me if they are peppermint or camel shrimp, they looked like peppermint to me, of course from what I understand there is a useful Atlantic version and an evil california/Pacific version so who knows. http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...intorCamel.jpg And here's two pics of the damage to the middle head http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...pawnDamage.jpg and http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/b...007/Damage.jpg I guess it's not as bad as it looked when they were hacking away but still very upsetting. I guess I'll have to pick up some joe's juice and do some hand to hand combat with any aiptasia that pop up from now on. Well, that's my excitement for the day, I'm going to grab a beer and fire up the grill.

[mps9506]

Those are definitely peppermint shrimp, not camels.
I'm not aware of the differences between Atl and Pacific peppermint shrimp. As far as I am aware all Lysmata wurdemanni are from the Caribbean and Tropical western Atlantic. I've personally not had issues with them eating other corals before, other than harassing the ocassional feather duster or stealing food from my zoas.
That being said anything that will munch on aiptasia probably could develop a taste for a yummy frogspawn.
Have fun with the joe's juice

[vdituri]

That sucks! Maybe there's a reason the suspects were found wearing stripes? Escaped convicts. At least now they are back behind bars where they belong.

Don't eat them though, minty seafood. yuck.

[boozeman]

[corrado007]

Originally Posted by vdituri

That sucks! Maybe there's a reason the suspects were found wearing stripes? Escaped convicts. At least now they are back behind bars where they belong.

Don't eat them though, minty seafood. yuck.

Good point, I didn't think about that. Mint will not go well with cocktail sauce. Maybe I'll put them in the QT tank instead.

[corrado007]

Originally Posted by mps9506

Those are definitely peppermint shrimp, not camels.
I'm not aware of the differences between Atl and Pacific peppermint shrimp. As far as I am aware all Lysmata wurdemanni are from the Caribbean and Tropical western Atlantic. I've personally not had issues with them eating other corals before, other than harassing the ocassional feather duster or stealing food from my zoas.
That being said anything that will munch on aiptasia probably could develop a taste for a yummy frogspawn.
Have fun with the joe's juice

Actually, the California/Pacific version I refer to is Lysmata Californica AKA the Catalina cleaner shrimp AKA peppermint shrimp. They are from the subtropical eastern Pacific and are a cool water variety that need 50 -68* temps and are at times mislabeled in a lfs and sold as Wurdemanni, they only last a short while in reef temperature tanks (Marine Invertebrates, Ronald L. Shimek PhD, p.242) I'm no expert, I've got to give credit where it's due.

[burning2nd]

are u sure then were eating the spawn.. and not just cleaning at the bottem's of it.....
i hated my 2 peppermints with passion... i was happier then a pig in *&^# watching them die......

when i use to feed corals, i use to have to defend the coarl while it ate.......

i wouldnt recommend peppermints to Ne1 unless you had a super big tank that had lots of angry fish.... like wrasses and triggers..... keep there little red butts in check...

sell em back 2 a lfs. get some credit... tell the dude "they trashed my tank u noob"

lol

sorry to hear about this.

[Dentoid]

Dude calm down, take a breath! These shrimps are not known to be that aggressive, and they are considered to be reef safe. Perhaps they are not getting enough food with the regular feeding. I have 4 of them in my 90G and they have not caused any problems. Sure, I do see them every once in awhile on my SPS corals, but they don't eat it! They just go where ever they want and sometimes their wanderings takes them onto coral. Don't panic, your coral will reinflate, get rid of the shrimps if that makes you feel better.

[corrado007]

Originally Posted by Dentoid

Dude calm down, take a breath! These shrimps are not known to be that aggressive, and they are considered to be reef safe. Perhaps they are not getting enough food with the regular feeding. I have 4 of them in my 90G and they have not caused any problems. Sure, I do see them every once in awhile on my SPS corals, but they don't eat it! They just go where ever they want and sometimes their wanderings takes them onto coral. Don't panic, your coral will reinflate, get rid of the shrimps if that makes you feel better.

I'm not having a heart attack here, just venting a bit. Sometimes venting and joking helps to make light of a situation. I realize that they are known to be reef safe but clearly these two are not. There are exceptions to every rule. I feed quite frequently so that's not an issue, they're just evil. I also have two skunk cleaners so I'm used to them walking all over my corals, causing them to retract. Unfortunately, my frog spawn "reinflating" where chunks were ripped out would defy the laws of nature but yes, it has of course reinflated where no damage was done. As for the shrimp, they've already been removed from general population and put in solitary confinement as mentioned above. They are most definitely not going back into the tank. The frog spawn is quite happy in my tank and will undoubtedly heal in time, it's just upsetting . I'm sure everyone here can relate to that.

[reefjitsu]

I've been trying to get the word out about peppermint shrimps for some time now. They should not be considered reef safe, or at best reef safe with caution. First off, they were once thought to be one species, but it is now clear that their are several look alike species (and no I'm not talking camel shrimps). In fact, it is now thought that the true Lysmata wurdemanni are probably never seen in the hobby at all. The shrimp that have been labeled as such are other Lysmata species, some of which are undescribed and the rest being fairly newly described. As such, it is almost impossible for the reefkeeper to be sure just what species they are putting in their tank.

In addition, there may be a range of behaviors displayed within a species or even an individual. Just like with humans, there is no reason to believe that all members of a given species will behave in the same manner in any given situation. In other words, expect individual variation in behavior.

Also, any critter that eats Aipatasia anemones will occasionally sample and/or consume other cnidarians, including corals.

[DrHank]

I have five peps in my 110 and two in my 29 with no problems at all. The worst that I can say is that the two in the 29 don't seem to be interested in eating aiptasia. Since there are only two aiptasia in the 29, I'm not overly concerned.

I have seen camel shrimps housed with peps at one of the two LFS I regurarly frequent. Coincidentally the two in my 29 came from the combined shrimp tank. I suppose that my two peps may have learned behavior from the camels in the same tank (I really dont know). It is possible that they are not true Lysmata wurdemanni.

I think that I'd swap yours out though to prevent further chaos. They are two expensive to grill.