Peppermint Shrimp nipping and killing my Hammer Coral.

[SaltyFlip]

Everything was find up until last week, one of the heads on my Hammer Coral started to recede and slowly die. Just now, I caught one of my two Peppermint Shrimps nipping at the insides of the receding head. Anyone got any similar experience or suggestions on how I should go about it? I'm thinking if it starts nipping at other corals or the other Hammer Coral head then I'll have to hold them and maybe trade them with another.

Here's a recent pic:

You can see I'm still tackling my algae problem. I was doing well up until I made another 30% water change two weeks ago, that's when they started flourishing again.
Here it is around 2 months or so:

 

[Mikei70]

I mentioned this in another thread recently, but yeah I had the same thing happen. The only difference was I had literally just put the coral in the tank, and the shrimp attacked. He ripped it apart, and pieces of it and a load of slime were all over the place.

The coral came back, though, and I exiled the shrimp to the refug.

 

[SaltyFlip]

Now I'm thinking of taking them out tomorrow but the biggest problem I'll have is breaking the rocks apart where the corals have crept and attached.

 

[Dre]

[PDF OVERLAY][/PDF OVERLAY] one of the heads on my Hammer Coral started to recede and slowly die. Just now, I caught one of my two Peppermint Shrimps nipping at the insides of the receding head.[PDF OVERLAY][/PDF OVERLAY]

But you didn't see the shrimp nipping at a healthy coral head...I think the shrimp is cleaning up the decay or copods that are in there.

 

[Mikei70]

When it happened, I chased him away and I dropped some food in there, figuring he was obviously hungry. I never saw him go after it again, but when I broke down that tank (probably about 3 weeks later) I took the opportunity to get him out. I never saw him damage it or anything else after that, but I just didn't trust him.

Maybe he would have left it alone forever after that-- I just don't know.

 

[Mikei70]

But you didn't see the shrimp nipping at a healthy coral head...I think the shrimp is cleaning up the decay or copods that are in there.

That's an excellent point.

Good catch.

 

[Dre]

Wait and see if the shrimp will bother the healthy head....It's very strange he didn't bother both coral heads.:scratchch

 

[SaltyFlip]

Good point Dre, I saw him picking at a small piece of what was left of the now dying coral (one of the deflated tentacle things). As for the fact if it was just cleaning up or not, that I can't really tell. I'll let you guys know once he picks at the other head or any other corals, then he's definitely out.

I just found it quite peculiar that everything's been growing healthily for the past 2-3 months while that one head is dying/dead. I'm going to do another 30% water change next week perhaps.

 

[Dre]

What are your pars ,Alk and such? Is that the hammer you got from me a while back ?

 

[ming]

From my experience, Peppermints will attack Hammers/torches when really hungry.
Those same peppermints will eat aiptasia when really hungry as well.
Also, make sure they're not camelback shrimps. Those are not reef safe at all.

 

[DREUTZ]

From my experience, Peppermints will attack Hammers/torches when really hungry.
.

I had the same thing happen to me. Here is the thread for it:

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/reefs-beginners/70497-peppermint-shrimp-vs-torch.html

Literally as soon as I put the torch in it got shredded and eaten.

I went and got a large cleaner shrimp after a few people told me to and it put the peppermint in its place. Chasing it around whenever it would come out from the rockwork until it would go back and hide. Both have died since then, but it seemed to do the trick. The only problem with the cleaner was that when i fed my acans, duncans, tractophylia etc it would rip into the coral to get the food out even though I would feed it a ton before I fed the corals.

 

[ming]

I had the same thing happen to me. Here is the thread for it:

http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/reefs-beginners/70497-peppermint-shrimp-vs-torch.html

Literally as soon as I put the torch in it got shredded and eaten.

I went and got a large cleaner shrimp after a few people told me to and it put the peppermint in its place. Chasing it around whenever it would come out from the rockwork until it would go back and hide. Both have died since then, but it seemed to do the trick. The only problem with the cleaner was that when i fed my acans, duncans, tractophylia etc it would rip into the coral to get the food out even though I would feed it a ton before I fed the corals.

I thought I'm the only one who suggested the cleaner shrimp? :lol:

 

[DREUTZ]

I thought I'm the only one who suggested the cleaner shrimp? :lol:

Haha, I am pretty sure you were the one who first suggested that to me and then after hearing the same thing from other people and on another forum as well as the guy at the LFS I gave it a try.

 

[dnreef]

But you didn't see the shrimp nipping at a healthy coral head...I think the shrimp is cleaning up the decay or copods that are in there.

+1

I used peppermints on 3 different occasions to control aiptasia and I have never seen them nip at a healthy coral. I did have a sick clam that they tore to pieces overnight. I tend to think that these shrimp attack weak and sick corals. I also found that the introduction of cleaner shrimp ultimately spelled the demise of the peppers.

 

[SaltyFlip]

Dre, yes they were the one's I got from you. The other (untouched) head has 3 different mouths and has split into 2 recently. I find it weird that they could've been hungry since I tend to slightly overfeed the tank with pellets and I'd see them running around to grab what the fish couldn't eat. Then on special days, I slice em each a tiny chunk of fish/shrimp before I feed it to Annie. As for placing a cleaner shrimp, I've been tempted but I know placing one would just cause them to fight for territory (considering I already have 2 peppermints) and it'd be sad to directly sentence one sps to death.

So far, the receding head has tiny bits of it's tentacles left and isn't absolutely gone...yet.

 

[straightjiggy10]

Whats your calcium/Alk at your cap looks like its having a rough time and your hammer also can be experiencing issues due to parameters and shrimp just scavenging on unhealthy parts of it. Also Ive seen this happen with temp. Where is your temp at when lights are on?