Peppermint Shrimp

[bluerug]

What good are pepper mint shrimp, i heard they eat a lot of bad things like aptasia and what not, is this true?

[AVALover5498]

Yeppers!



-Chris-

[bluerug]

Sweet, so they will actually eat pest anemones? And other pests just not good corals and such?

[figuerres]

generaly they are good scavengers and i have even seen them turn to fish-cleaners - not common but I saw it!

in a few cases folks have said they went after a soft coral...
but I tend to wonder if they knew the coral was sick and were trying to clean out the infected / dead tissue.

just make sure they are not "camel" shrimp which some times are confused with pepermenints....

camels look almost the same but are much more likely to eat soft corals.

[ManEatingGuppy]

mine picked on and ate many of my zoas and mushrooms, didnt touch aiptasia, and i am positive it was a peppermint not a camel shrimp.

[rkizer06140]

i also had a peppermint eat one of my ricordias

[bluerug]

Man now i am thinking should i even get one. Should i?

[dcombs44]

I have pepps that are no problems. They don't touch my aptasias, but they do have a fish cleaning station and are good scavengers.

They are hit or miss when it comes to eating aptasia, and I have heard some stories of eating soft corals, but IME I've never seen the bad side of a true peppermint.

[vijaym85]

Mine ate a Xenia and no I was not trying to have it kill it, I just bought it!!! Wont be getting anymore. I prefer Blood and CLeaner shrimps.

[musty baby]

They'll eat any coral tissue that is dead or dying and will steal food from lps corals, which is why I will not be keeping mine. However, my tank is definitely aptasia free.

[Dr.FuManchu]

Mine steal food from the corals, they have eaten a ricordia and picked at Zoas and Palys. I probably wouldnt get them again, unless I had aiptasia. 100% positive they are Peppermints also.

[figuerres]

it might be interesting to do some tests... but would need a lot of time and gear...

are they eating soft due to:

a) only when other food is not found
b) some are geneticaly prone to them
c) only when they detect illness - tissue damage etc..
d) other factors such as water temp / PH etc....
e) both anemones and buttons are so similar they get "confused"

or none of the above...

for example what if there are 2 or more variants of the pepermint and by selection we could have a "softie safe" strain ?

or if we could establish what conditions lead them in each direction?

just some thouhgts on this....

[evilsike]

I bought 5 from saltwaterfish but they gave me 6 since only 1 was big (3 months ago). after a week, I didn't see any of them even at night so I bought 3more from my lfs. in 3 weeks time, my aiptasia was about 200 to only a handful
I just feed them spirulina flakes 3x/week when lights are off just to be on the safe side and not touch my corals and clam.

last night 8 of them were wandering around (2am)

[figuerres]

Originally posted by evilsike
I bought 5 from saltwaterfish but they gave me 6 since only 1 was big (3 months ago). after a week, I didn't see any of them even at night so I bought 3more from my lfs. in 3 weeks time, my aiptasia was about 200 to only a handful
I just feed them spirulina flakes 3x/week when lights are off just to be on the safe side and not touch my corals and clam.

last night 8 of them were wandering around (2am)

they do like to hide out during the day...

I have a Pistol shrimp - 5 years the only times I have seen him is when I moved the tank and had to take out everything.

but at least 3 times a week +/- I will hear him POP!
so I know he's still alive

[AquaReeferMan]

Yeah I have always housed Peps in various tanks and never had a problem with them. I now have some the size of my Skunk Cleaners. I very rarely see them and if I do its at night or when Im feeding. I keep them with a wide range of coral, fish, and inverts. On occasion they will steal food from corals but thats a given. I never see aiptasia so I know theyre doing there job.

[DrHank]

I had a moderate Aiptasia problem until a week after I put 5 in my tank. Aiptasia have been completely gone for two months now. The shrimp haven't touched anything else in the tank. They scavenge at night and the only time I see them is when I feed the tank.

[schnell76]

I have one peppermint in my 12 nano and he is a very friendly one. He is out during the day and comes into view when I come up to the front of the tank. I had a few aiptasia, but not once I got the peppermint. I can only assume he took care of them since its just him, a neon goby, and a small serpent star in there. I did see him picking at two of my orange ricordia, but that was after I moved them since they were getting stung from a nearby fuzzy mushroom brushing up against the ricordias. I kept an eye on the peppermint and all he did was pick off the dead tissue from the ricordia and has never touched it again. So, I figure he was helping me and the ricordia out by removing the damaged/dead tissue.

(fill disclosure is that I feed him a couple sinking pellets a couple times a week so he won't turn and eat any other corals)