Peppermint Shrimp are Evil!

[BrothaWolf]

I know, I know its my own fault for not doing better research and I feel terrible... 2 seconds after I introduced this tiny yellow polyp colony Patty my Peppermint Shrimp began to munch. I learned 3 things:

#1 RESEARCH RESEARCH RESEARCH
#2 DONT Let G/F name the things in tank
#3 Peppermint Shrimp DONT taste like peppermint!

 

[music man]

sounds like a camel shrinp? show a pic of shrimp?

 

[mps9506]

If it isn't a camel shrimp are you sure it was muinching on the polyps as opposed to eating all the crud that was on them from the shipment bag?

 

[burning2nd]

ill join the peppermint shrimp suck club.

few things ive learned

a) Highly agressive

b) theifing little sob

c)dont really give 2 s's about aptaisa

d) hard as hell to catch

e) dont let anyone else in the tank eat.


i have 2.
needless 2 say, soon i will be fed up with them and 1 will go

maybe i can hold on to them till i get my 150 setup but i dont know if i have enough in me to remain calm

i dont want to tell you, cause i didnt want to hear it either but ill pass it on what i was told

thos are yellow pylops and they spread really fast (from what im told)

every one told me to rip them out. LOL

for some resone the peppermints didnt look at mine

 

[Charlie97L]

that looks like the wrong variety of peppermint shrimp. they're supposed to be totally pink, with red stripes, (no borders).

from wetwebmedia

http://www.wetwebmedia.com/marine/inverts/cnidaria/anthozoa/aiptasia/aippepshrpfaqs.htm (2nd article)

Aiptasia-eating Shrimp, especially the Peppermint Shrimp, Lysmata wurdemanni (Image), can be a great Aiptasia muncher. Be aware that there is some confusion in the trade re this species (from the Atlantic) and a few others including the native California coast Lysmata californica... with darker, bolder dark striping... this latter Lysmata is no good as a designated Aiptasia muncher.

I.D. info on Lysmata: http://www.reefs.org/library/article

Also, the entire genus Lysmata is categorically risky in reef aquaria and all have been known to nip corals and other desirable reef inverts at times.

 

[BrothaWolf]

ill join the peppermint shrimp suck club.

few things ive learned

a) Highly agressive

b) theifing little sob

Thats looks EXACTLY like my peppermint shrimp... I put the yellow polyps in and as a I was adding my small mushrooms Patty was already on the polyps ripping them apart and stuffing her face. I wasnt sure so I kinda flicked her away. 2 seconds later she is back on them. They werent even open yet...Little pieces of yellow flying all around her. I couldnt believe my eyes it was DEFINETLY the polyps she was munching... This is all while my hands are still in the tank. I netted her up quick and yanked her.

 

[burning2nd]

mine go after my fingers

 

[BrothaWolf]

Will scarlet hermits munch on Zoa? Or are they just cleaning stuff in between?

 

[Charlie97L]

unlikely, but crabs will eat anything. probably just getting algae in the surrounding rock.

 

[burning2nd]

i beleave the scarlet will possabul munch on zoa's

i dont know tho.

my blue legs dont

but like all crabs when forced, they will do crazy things.

 

[BrothaWolf]

Traded Patty in on a nice Cleaner Shrimp yesterday. Told my g/f not to name this one just in case... Anyways "Mr Belvedere" is doing just fine. :smack: He is a lot more brazen and fun to watch than my blood shrimp "Lou"...

 

[ghostwolf]

BrothaWolf, here is a pic of my peppermint shrimp, Fiesty. We actually have 2. Neither picks at any of the coral (I have yellow zoas also) or any of the other stuff in the tank. They only go for stuff that is dead or food.

Lin

 

[BrothaWolf]

He mustve been the evil sub species of Pep shrimp Hated to see him go he had a nice personality but this cleaner is blowing my mind Every time I come near the tank he swims up to me... I was just in the tank moving something and he was climbing all over my hand He is awesome!

 

[Jorgens]

well i have 2 peps. Thay arn't eating the damn aptasia....and they have stole food out of the clutch of my tubestrea but havne't actually eaten them....yet...

maybe i outta find some comparison pics....my lfs is pretty weak so it's possible they have them named wrong...

 

[reefjitsu]

There are several species of peppermint shrimp that are nearly identical in appearance. It used to be thought that there was only one species, with camel shrimps being occassionally confused as peppermints. It has only been recently discovered that there are several look alike species. The habits of the newly discovered species are not well known yet, and it appears that they might not all be reef safe.

Also, within a species, there can be a tremendous amount of variabilty. Just because most peppermint shrimps are well-behaved in a reef, it doesn't mean that all members of that species will behave in the same way.

 

[Frankie]

I have a peppermint shrimp. If you get down real low nd look under the rock you can see him there shaking in his boots as my black hawwian trigger swims by. lol he even took out the acro crab for me without damaging the acro. I love my trigger! He dose tend to play foot ball with the snails thoughh:

 

[ReefLady]

I've had peppermints do the same thing... attack any soft coral (esp. zoanthids) introduced to the tank. I found that if I kept them well fed, this wouldn't be as much of an issue. Also, feeding them while you sneak the new coral into the tank is a good way to go.

Mine did whoop up on some aiptasia though....

 

[Warnberg]

The pic of the first shrimp does NOT look like a peppermint shrimp to me, the second I can not tell. I have about 25 peppermint shrimp in my tank and they have never touched any of my Zoo's. My scret hermits have never touched any of my Zoo's either. Only yhing I have had that went after them where nudi's, little Zoo eating nudi's. I caught them in time and have no trouble since.

 

[BrothaWolf]

The pic of the first shrimp does NOT look like a peppermint shrimp to me, the second I can not tell. I have about 25 peppermint shrimp in my tank and they have never touched any of my Zoo's. My scret hermits have never touched any of my Zoo's either. Only yhing I have had that went after them where nudi's, little Zoo eating nudi's. I caught them in time and have no trouble since.

That first pic looks exactly like my peppermint... I ordered it from Premium Aquatics... Maybe they sent me a "look alike" by accident They sent me 2 unidentified hermits mixed in with my snails also that I wasnt very happy about one was wearing a nassarius shell and the other had a nerite ... (You all have me PARANOID about crabs!) My scarlets were only cleaning out the goodies inbetween the polyps on my Zoa just like Woodstock had said. Everything in the tank is peaceful and happy now.

 

[Warnberg]

BrithaWolf, I have had several incidents where I have received something other than what I had ordered. This seems to be an "acceptable" practice in the mail order market. Needless to say when I have this type of thing occur I no longer order from that company any longer. There should be some type of recourse we can take a hobbyists when a mail order company does this... is this not defrauding the public? false advertisement? What are we supposed to do? You order one thing and it's OK to substitute something else? Now, it is possible that some online stores get new employees in and something gets mislabled or miss-bagged.....

Yet another buyer beware...