HELP! evil peppermint shrimp!

[leahski]

i had a peppermint shrimp as part of my CUC, but he died a little while ago so today i got a new one, pepperoncini. he's really cool and active and bold, he walks all over my tank, unlike my last one. but i was watching him and he walked right up to my baby mushroom and started chowing down in it!! i chased him off, but he kept coming back, so i finally had to put my fish net on top of it as a kind of protective sheild from the shrimp.

is this normal peppermint behavior? and will he keep it up? i can't have a shrimp with a taste for shrooms in a tank that will have mostly softies in it! HELP!

[ninjataco777]

I've heard something like this b4 cant remember where, peppermints are known for eating nuisance aptasia (glass anemone)

[leahski]

yeah, but not softies, right? gah! i thought they were reef safe!!!

[goldenmean]

They are reef safe.
She was probably just eating something off of the mushroom

[DrHank]

Or, you may have gotten a Camel shrimp by mistake.

[leahski]

definatly NOT eating something off of the shroom! i chased him away and found two large chunks missing in it and it covered in slime. gah!

i hope i didn't get a camel shrimp by mistake. are they different in appearance? something i could ID it by? the LFS had a whole tank of them labeled "peppermint shrimp"...

[dobejazz]

Camel shrimp have a pronounced hump on there back when viewed from the side

[leahski]

how "pronounced" are we talking? like humpback shrimp or slight curve? i don't THINK he has a hump...

[DrHank]

Looks like this:
Camel Shrimp

[leahski]

hmm, okay that is a pronounced hump. so, it's not a camel shrimp. i'm thinking that it could be a different sp. of pepperimint called "Lysmata rathbunae"
check out this link...Reefs.org: Where Reefkeeping Begins on the Internet - Peppermint Shrimp

[DrHank]

Could very well be. You should also take note of the position of the hump. I've seen Camel shrimp that closely resemble Peppermint shrimp. Not all Camels have humps that are that pronounced. The position of the hump is different from the break in the peppermint's tail.

[leahski]

alright, i snapped a quick shot of him, it's not the best, but you can still tell the shape of the back (no hump that i can see) and the coloration...

[DrHank]

Definitely has the shape of a peppermint shrimp. Might not be though, the body markings don't look right.

[leahski]

really? he has light red horizontal stripes separated by a dark red, thicker stripe with a band of white in between, and also has some thick, kind of transparent vertical red stripes on his back. eyes are def. black like a pep. but tail looks darker than most pics i've seen.

[DrHank]

This is a good example of a peppermint shrimp.
Peppermint Shrimp - Lysmata wurdemanni
They do not always appear as vibrant. Mine are more transparent. The markings should look like this. Your picture is a bit blurry so I can't really tell. The red streaks should run horizontally with vertical interconnections. There really aren't any bands.