Peppermint Shrimp eating coral!!

[Dmitry]

I busted one of my peppermint shrimps eating the Pinkeye Pagoda Cap I got from Danny! As the lights turned on there it was, sitting in the cup, chowing down on pieces of the flesh, leaving white bits behind! And now there's a white spot on the cup, flesh all torn away! What do I do?! There's no way I'm gonna catch this sucker now, though I'll be catching everything in a month as I transfer everything into a bigger tank. (And then, who knows which shrimp is which; I got two peppermints!)

 

[spykes]

dude, peps are not reefsafe, they are usually from the coast of florida, not to far from the reef, but they are not entirely reefsafe. What you can do is feed the peps by hand, like dont let them go hungry, they are opertunitist. that should help you until the next month, it's probably just really hungry and going for whatever it can get. I started feeding my tank a bit more often after my hammer, foxface and ricordias were attacked.

 

[nanoreefer22]

I always thought they were reefsafe. I know the camelback shrimp look very similar to the peppermints and those aren't reef safe. Maybe the shrimp were mislabeled and you got a camelback by mistake. I've had peppermints and never had a problem.

 

[pecan2phat]

Peppermint shrimps are reef safe...........

I suspect your pagoda cap was starting to lose it's tissue and the peppermint's sensed that.

It's like when you see the threads about how the bristle worms killed and ate my clam. Whereas the clam was dying and the bristle worms were just doing their natural thing.

 

[gil716]

Two exerpts from Wetwebmedia,

"Just an FYI to all of you getting lured into buying 'reef safe' peppermint shrimp. Be cautious. So far $3 peppermint shrimp wiped out 2 of my plate corals. Now that they are gone, I can't wait to see what they move onto next.
>>Wow, gotcha. This is the biggest problem we have with common names. I bet you *didn't* get Lysmata wurdemanni, which is the animal that we all love and often use to control Aiptasia. However, there is at least one other animal that goes by the "Peppermint" moniker, Rhynchocinetes spp., with large eyes and a beaklike "nose" (you'll also note that their color saturation is strikingly different and much stronger)."

and here's another one from Anthony Calfo,
"<reef shrimps of the genus Lysmata have a long-standing and well-documented history of nipping, eating or harassing desirable reef invertebrates (corals and clams are favorite foods at times <G>). The peppermint shrimp has become popular recently as you have discovered for eating Aiptasia. The addition and practice is ill-advised in my opinion. We cannot expect these shrimp to eat one cnidarian (the Aiptasia) while leaving other cnidarians (corals like your Xeniid) alone. It just doesn't work that way."

HTH

 

[jenniebutterfly]

well, my peppermints have never eaten anything unless it was dead, or an aiptasia. camelback shrimp on the other hand will eat everything. you wouldn't happen to have a picture of your shrimp would you for id?