Ok, really Pi**ed off, peppermint shrimp!

grahxen · 10/19/2006, 03:21 PM

Ok, over the past 10 years since i have been in the saltwater hobby i have never really had a problem with peppermint shrimp attacking any corals or really anything else that is "alive" in my tank. I have 3 Lysmata wurdemanni peppermint shrimp and they have been wreaking havoc on some corals. They have totally torn apart my open brain that was totally healthy and fully expanded with no wounds to its flesh. I caught one of them tearing away at i and it tore a nice hole in its side. I covered the coral right away with my homeade clear cup that has drilled holes in it. It repaired itself in about a week. SO i took the cup off, and sure enough they were at it again, tearing a different part of it. SO i put the cup over it again, it healed again. I made sure my shrimp were well fed, I fed them silversides. I removed it again, and at the time they left it alone, but in the morning when i woke up there was another one picking at it once again. They are now also bothering my frogspawn, one of them actually ripped some of its tentacles off and were floating around the tank. I am at my wits end with these. I am actually trying to get them out of the tank, but seems impossible. I am going to try to feed them as usual with my Long sticks, and if i can get them fast enough I am going to chop the damn things in half with my kent pro scraper. That's if anyone else has any better ideas. I just dont get it, they are well fed, plenty of food.... Ive heard of these horror stories but they are quite to few and far between. Let me know of any ideas.

kiknchikn · 10/19/2006, 03:25 PM

Have you tried the bottle trap yet?

mdt178 · 10/19/2006, 04:02 PM

put in a medium sized mystery wrasse, those shrimps don't have a chance.

kiknchikn · 10/19/2006, 04:07 PM

That's a pretty expensive (but colorful) solution lol...

If you really want them dead, I've heard you can just get a coral banded shrimp and it'll tear them apart. But I personally would never do that as I love animals.

alizarin · 10/19/2006, 04:47 PM

I feel your pain man. I had a 15 gallon nano and I couldn't get the little bugger out of his hidey hole or catch him with a net at night, and I didn't want to take apart the rockwork and mess with my new coral. You're supposed to take a plastic coke bottle (2 liter or single one), cut it in half (reallly 1/4 with the spout, 3/4 without), turn the spout side around, and put it into the other end. They put bait in there and it's hard for the shrimp to leave. I tried that with mine but he was too smart to go for it while I was there and in the morning I'd just have a cup ful of nassarius snails.

The story ended with the shrimp killing the thing I was trying to save and the shrimp dying a month after I gave up trying to catch him, probably from my hateful looks.

Peter Eichler · 10/19/2006, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by kiknchikn
That's a pretty expensive (but colorful) solution lol...

If you really want them dead, I've heard you can just get a coral banded shrimp and it'll tear them apart. But I personally would never do that as I love animals.

I don't think it would work even if you tried. I've kept Coral Banded Shrimp with various shrimp for years and they were pretty peaceful to one another.

Kigs · 10/19/2006, 05:12 PM

they were doing the same thing to my zoa colonies. i ended up taking the entire tank apart to catch them. it's good that it was only a 29g, but still took hell of a long time. plus, i could never get the perfect aquascape previous the breakdown afterwards

AVALover5498 · 10/19/2006, 05:20 PM

What you could do is buy some water dynomite!!!!!!!

JK...

Ryanqk · 10/19/2006, 06:23 PM

get a big aggresive hawkfish maybe?

aquarius77 · 10/19/2006, 06:28 PM

I have seen mine get pretty rough on my frogspawn as well. Come feeding time they get pretty silly and dont much care what they are taking the food from.

Mighty Dread · 10/19/2006, 06:29 PM

My peppermint just ravaged my red sea pulsating xenia!!

And I have seen it in the past eating fish alive! I have had sick fish in the past that have rested on the bottom and the freakin' shrimp is over there EATING THEM ALIVE!!

My shrimp is on his last reprive - if he does any more killing or coral damaging his next home is gonna be my toilet!!!!!!!!!!!!!

aquarius77 · 10/19/2006, 06:37 PM

I would already have that puppy in a bag and on its way to a fish store!
The more i read this thread and sit here and think about the two peps in my tank im thinking i want to get rid of them myself.

grahxen · 10/19/2006, 08:47 PM

Well I am at my wits end, just not really sure what to do, or how to catch these bastards. I really cant break my tank down to catch them because it will kill me. I have finally just got it the way I want it and to break it down would kill me before i get a chance to kill the shrimp. Peppermint shrimp have to be the smartest damn animals i have ever had in my tanks. I am going to continue to hand feed them and keeep them well fed and see if it makes any difference what so ever. Just on a side note, they are not picking at corals when i feed, that is expected with shrimp. These guys, will just randomly pick on corals whenever they feel like it. My open brain is once again covered so they cannot get at it. They seem to be leaving my frogspawn alone for now, but most of the time happpens when lights are off. One thing i noticed was that when they were young, they never did this. They are quite large now, probably from eating all my nice corals in my tank. Any other useful information will be helpful, i think i may try the bottle trick.

crpeck · 10/19/2006, 08:55 PM

My original cleaner package came with 6 of those little buggers. When they were small, they were cute and fun but they grew into an aggressive pack of little dogs. Between the Coral Beauty nips and the Peppermint shrimp I had to give up trying to keep an open brain and anything with any weakness or injury never had a chance with them around. They would swarm and pick the snot out corals, rocks, whatever. They were really hard on feather dusters.

The Banded Coral Shrimp was no threat to them. Peps are too fast and the CBs is too slow.

I trapped them out using some funky shrimp pellets made for feeding catfish. I'm sure they're full of of phosphates and who knows what, but fish and shrimp go nuts for them. I put one in the trap each day, but didnt' spring the trap for almost a week. Once I had the shrimp going in there to eat and their guard was down I sprung it and got them out.

Sent them to a nice lady in Reno with a new 180 with a big aiptasia problem.

I think having one or two is fine. I think they tend to get more bold the more there are in their pack.

Good Luck

grahxen · 10/19/2006, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by crpeck
My original cleaner package came with 6 of those little buggers. When they were small, they were cute and fun but they grew into an aggressive pack of little dogs. Between the Coral Beauty nips and the Peppermint shrimp I had to give up trying to keep an open brain and anything with any weakness or injury never had a chance with them around. They would swarm and pick the snot out corals, rocks, whatever. They were really hard on feather dusters.

The Banded Coral Shrimp was no threat to them. Peps are too fast and the CBs is too slow.

I trapped them out using some funky shrimp pellets made for feeding catfish. I'm sure they're full of of phosphates and who knows what, but fish and shrimp go nuts for them. I put one in the trap each day, but didnt' spring the trap for almost a week. Once I had the shrimp going in there to eat and their guard was down I sprung it and got them out.

Sent them to a nice lady in Reno with a new 180 with a big aiptasia problem.

I think having one or two is fine. I think they tend to get more bold the more there are in their pack.

Good Luck

How exactly did you make the trap?

acrylic_300 · 10/19/2006, 09:06 PM

you just invert the end of a 2 liter bottle...by cutting around it then turning it around and sticking it back in.

I've been through this and the only way to catch them is with the lights off.

crpeck · 10/19/2006, 09:45 PM

I used a store bought acrylic trap. It has a really big opening so they're not threatened to go in. It has a sliding door controlled by clear fish line. I tied a heavy ring to it to make the door slide down faster.

Mine were too big by the time I was trapping them out to use the Coke bottle trap. They wouldn't go in the little hole. But I've used that idea with smaller critters and it works well.

The acrylic trap I bought is called "The Trap". It was expensive, but it's been a good investment because I've used it for crabs and also to trap out fish that needed quarantine or treatment.

Poorcollegereef · 10/19/2006, 09:56 PM

I had a six-line wrasse eat a peppermint shrimp in 12 secs with three bites/moves. He bit it in half, yanked the top half out...gulp then he pulled the tailmeat in one yank as well. It was amazing and would make the most die-hard shrimp peeler bow in awe.

To make things clearer... my reaction was:

WHAT???? NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

...wow amazing....

wait, no.... darn it that thing was 12 bucks! Im going to make you pay you stinking wrasse!

grahxen · 10/19/2006, 10:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by acrylic_300
you just invert the end of a 2 liter bottle...by cutting around it then turning it around and sticking it back in.

I've been through this and the only way to catch them is with the lights off.

So you mean cut a 2 liter soda bottle in half, then flip it inside out into the bottom half so the wide opening is facing out? I take it the shrimp crawl into the opening, and into the small hole and cant get back out? Or at least not easily? And how do you hold the 2 pieces of plastic together?

artful-dodger · 10/30/2006, 03:30 PM

just friction

ci11337 · 10/30/2006, 03:57 PM

My Lysmata wurdemanni never bothered a thing, including aptasias

But if you want to kill yours get a big fat greedy pajama cardinal. I awoke one morning and saw the little shrimps head sticking out of the cardinals mouth. It might be a fluke though cuz i've never heard anyone else have it happen.

10/19/2006, 03:21 PM	#1
grahxen Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: NJ Posts: 532	Ok, really Pied off, peppermint shrimp!** Ok, over the past 10 years since i have been in the saltwater hobby i have never really had a problem with peppermint shrimp attacking any corals or really anything else that is "alive" in my tank. I have 3 Lysmata wurdemanni peppermint shrimp and they have been wreaking havoc on some corals. They have totally torn apart my open brain that was totally healthy and fully expanded with no wounds to its flesh. I caught one of them tearing away at i and it tore a nice hole in its side. I covered the coral right away with my homeade clear cup that has drilled holes in it. It repaired itself in about a week. SO i took the cup off, and sure enough they were at it again, tearing a different part of it. SO i put the cup over it again, it healed again. I made sure my shrimp were well fed, I fed them silversides. I removed it again, and at the time they left it alone, but in the morning when i woke up there was another one picking at it once again. They are now also bothering my frogspawn, one of them actually ripped some of its tentacles off and were floating around the tank. I am at my wits end with these. I am actually trying to get them out of the tank, but seems impossible. I am going to try to feed them as usual with my Long sticks, and if i can get them fast enough I am going to chop the damn things in half with my kent pro scraper. That's if anyone else has any better ideas. I just dont get it, they are well fed, plenty of food.... Ive heard of these horror stories but they are quite to few and far between. Let me know of any ideas.

10/19/2006, 03:25 PM	#2
kiknchikn Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Bel Air, MD Posts: 1,556	Have you tried the bottle trap yet? __________________ I am a proud member of the Chesapeake Marine Aquaria Society (CMAS). If you're in the Maryland area check us out! Current Tank Info: 30g nano reef

10/19/2006, 04:07 PM	#4
kiknchikn Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Bel Air, MD Posts: 1,556	That's a pretty expensive (but colorful) solution lol... If you really want them dead, I've heard you can just get a coral banded shrimp and it'll tear them apart. But I personally would never do that as I love animals. __________________ I am a proud member of the Chesapeake Marine Aquaria Society (CMAS). If you're in the Maryland area check us out! Current Tank Info: 30g nano reef

10/19/2006, 06:23 PM	#9
Ryanqk Registered Member Join Date: May 2006 Location: Ft. Lauderdale Posts: 1,381	get a big aggresive hawkfish maybe? __________________ MOM! I'm God Of The Sea People! Behold my tiny minions gloveling at my likeness! Current Tank Info: 75gl display, 20gl long fuge, CPR overflow, Octopuss NW150 skimmer, 4 x 110w VHO T12's and supplemental actinic, ongoing projects...

10/19/2006, 06:29 PM	#11
Mighty Dread Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Worldwide Posts: 141	My peppermint just ravaged my red sea pulsating xenia!! And I have seen it in the past eating fish alive! I have had sick fish in the past that have rested on the bottom and the freakin' shrimp is over there EATING THEM ALIVE!! My shrimp is on his last reprive - if he does any more killing or coral damaging his next home is gonna be my toilet!!!!!!!!!!!!! __________________ One good thing about music when it hits you feel no pain. Current Tank Info: 70 gal. w/ sump & fuge

10/19/2006, 04:02 PM	#3
mdt178 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Posts: 655	put in a medium sized mystery wrasse, those shrimps don't have a chance.

10/19/2006, 04:47 PM	#5
alizarin Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Tampa, FL Posts: 869	I feel your pain man. I had a 15 gallon nano and I couldn't get the little bugger out of his hidey hole or catch him with a net at night, and I didn't want to take apart the rockwork and mess with my new coral. You're supposed to take a plastic coke bottle (2 liter or single one), cut it in half (reallly 1/4 with the spout, 3/4 without), turn the spout side around, and put it into the other end. They put bait in there and it's hard for the shrimp to leave. I tried that with mine but he was too smart to go for it while I was there and in the morning I'd just have a cup ful of nassarius snails. The story ended with the shrimp killing the thing I was trying to save and the shrimp dying a month after I gave up trying to catch him, probably from my hateful looks.

10/19/2006, 05:12 PM	#7
Kigs Moved On Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: LI, NY Posts: 2,182	they were doing the same thing to my zoa colonies. i ended up taking the entire tank apart to catch them. it's good that it was only a 29g, but still took hell of a long time. plus, i could never get the perfect aquascape previous the breakdown afterwards

10/19/2006, 05:20 PM	#8
AVALover5498 Zoa Freak Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Sioux City, IA Posts: 752	What you could do is buy some water dynomite!!!!!!! JK...

10/19/2006, 06:28 PM	#10
aquarius77 Moved On Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Highland, Il Posts: 2,198	I have seen mine get pretty rough on my frogspawn as well. Come feeding time they get pretty silly and dont much care what they are taking the food from.

10/19/2006, 06:37 PM	#12
aquarius77 Moved On Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Highland, Il Posts: 2,198	I would already have that puppy in a bag and on its way to a fish store! The more i read this thread and sit here and think about the two peps in my tank im thinking i want to get rid of them myself.

10/19/2006, 08:47 PM	#13
grahxen Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: NJ Posts: 532	Well I am at my wits end, just not really sure what to do, or how to catch these bastards. I really cant break my tank down to catch them because it will kill me. I have finally just got it the way I want it and to break it down would kill me before i get a chance to kill the shrimp. Peppermint shrimp have to be the smartest damn animals i have ever had in my tanks. I am going to continue to hand feed them and keeep them well fed and see if it makes any difference what so ever. Just on a side note, they are not picking at corals when i feed, that is expected with shrimp. These guys, will just randomly pick on corals whenever they feel like it. My open brain is once again covered so they cannot get at it. They seem to be leaving my frogspawn alone for now, but most of the time happpens when lights are off. One thing i noticed was that when they were young, they never did this. They are quite large now, probably from eating all my nice corals in my tank. Any other useful information will be helpful, i think i may try the bottle trick.

10/19/2006, 08:55 PM	#14
crpeck Premium Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Clovis, CA Posts: 1,729	My original cleaner package came with 6 of those little buggers. When they were small, they were cute and fun but they grew into an aggressive pack of little dogs. Between the Coral Beauty nips and the Peppermint shrimp I had to give up trying to keep an open brain and anything with any weakness or injury never had a chance with them around. They would swarm and pick the snot out corals, rocks, whatever. They were really hard on feather dusters. The Banded Coral Shrimp was no threat to them. Peps are too fast and the CBs is too slow. I trapped them out using some funky shrimp pellets made for feeding catfish. I'm sure they're full of of phosphates and who knows what, but fish and shrimp go nuts for them. I put one in the trap each day, but didnt' spring the trap for almost a week. Once I had the shrimp going in there to eat and their guard was down I sprung it and got them out. Sent them to a nice lady in Reno with a new 180 with a big aiptasia problem. I think having one or two is fine. I think they tend to get more bold the more there are in their pack. Good Luck __________________ Cathy Current Tank Info: IM Fusion 40/AI Hydra 26

10/19/2006, 09:06 PM	#16
acrylic_300 Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: Moberly, Mo Posts: 876	you just invert the end of a 2 liter bottle...by cutting around it then turning it around and sticking it back in. I've been through this and the only way to catch them is with the lights off.

10/19/2006, 09:45 PM	#17
crpeck Premium Member Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Clovis, CA Posts: 1,729	I used a store bought acrylic trap. It has a really big opening so they're not threatened to go in. It has a sliding door controlled by clear fish line. I tied a heavy ring to it to make the door slide down faster. Mine were too big by the time I was trapping them out to use the Coke bottle trap. They wouldn't go in the little hole. But I've used that idea with smaller critters and it works well. The acrylic trap I bought is called "The Trap". It was expensive, but it's been a good investment because I've used it for crabs and also to trap out fish that needed quarantine or treatment. __________________ Cathy Current Tank Info: IM Fusion 40/AI Hydra 26

10/19/2006, 09:56 PM	#18
Poorcollegereef Future Doc Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: DC Posts: 961	I had a six-line wrasse eat a peppermint shrimp in 12 secs with three bites/moves. He bit it in half, yanked the top half out...gulp then he pulled the tailmeat in one yank as well. It was amazing and would make the most die-hard shrimp peeler bow in awe. To make things clearer... my reaction was: WHAT???? NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! ...wow amazing.... wait, no.... darn it that thing was 12 bucks! Im going to make you pay you stinking wrasse!

10/30/2006, 03:30 PM	#20
artful-dodger Registered Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Highlands Ranch, Colorado Posts: 3,011	just friction __________________ "In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." -- Thomas Jefferson Current Tank Info: 140g RR Oceanic "Ultimate" mixed reef, 37g softies, 40g RBTA tank, 65g FOWLR, 40g breeder frag, and (of course) a 29g QT! ...next up is a 240g! (Gotta go to K-Mart and buy a life...)

10/30/2006, 03:57 PM	#21
ci11337 Moved On Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Spencerport, NY Posts: 15	My Lysmata wurdemanni never bothered a thing, including aptasias But if you want to kill yours get a big fat greedy pajama cardinal. I awoke one morning and saw the little shrimps head sticking out of the cardinals mouth. It might be a fluke though cuz i've never heard anyone else have it happen.