Carniverous Peppermint shrimp?

[dejaco]

Came home today to a gory sight! Three peppermint shrimp had attacked a featherduster worm. Literally pulled it out of it's parchment case and were playing tug - o - war with it! Never had this happen before that I know of, but have had 1 other feather duster simply vanish about 2 months ago!
Has anyone every had peppermint shrimp eat there other livestock?

 

[dueces]

I had the same thing happen. I bought some peps after a Apitsia breakout and then after the ate all of the apitsia they went after my featherduster. They kept pulling the heads off. They must mistke it for the apitsia....
I had a apitsia so big that it actually tried to eat one of pep shrimps. the shrimp was sucked in like a net. It was pretty funny!!

 

[40 galons]

i had a peppermint shrimp att. one of my green ricordias, completely ate all the bulbs off it .. but when it grew back it was twice the size it was before

 

[psusocr1]

my pepps. eat shrimp! canibals!

 

[katieb]

So funny, I just found my coral banded shrimp doing the same thing, ripping dusters apart. What to do??

 

[mudplayerx]

Are you sure that you were sold peppermint shrimp? Camelback shrimp look very similar and are sometimes sold as peppermints by mistake. Camelbacks can be predators of corals and other critters.
However, even if you did have camelback shrimp... a feather duster worm is more than capable of withdrawing and protecting itself from them. I hardly think even 5 shrimp would have the strength to pull a full-sized, healthy feather duster from its tube. It may have been dead or dying already.

 

[bonebrake]

Sorry, but it is true. I bought five peppermint shrimp from saltwaterfish.com, they kindly sent me seven for that price. I only had about five aiptasia, but I figured it would be easier to get rid of them with peppermints. They ate every single one of my feather dusters from the hundreds of tiny white ones to my coco worm. They are little terrors. When they ran out of feather dusters they did eat the aiptasia, but I am not sure it was worth the trade. I loved my feather dusters.

 

[bcollie]

I think BoneBrake might be on to something...I was searching threads to see if I could find out why my feather duster is lying limp halfway out of its tube. Its crown is still attached. I thought this morning that its tube appeared to be torn The only recent item added to my tank were 2 peppermint shrimp...not camel; I am aware of the difference. I love feather dusters too...the one I have is dark purple & white. I'm not going to be happy if it is murdered by #%&*@ shrimp!!

 

[ophiura]

They will absolutely eat a dying worm, so that is something that needs to be considered.
But would they eat more? If they are purchased to eat certain types of anemones, they are carnivorous. I would say they are rather omnivorous and opportunistic. But I would absolutely expect them to eat other things - potentially desirable things - if they don't find enough food otherwise. This is common with many animals we keep. They are doing what is instinctive, not only what we want them to do (e.g. green brittlestars).

 

[geoffer]

Is it a problem to mix different types of shrimp?

 

[laddy]

In what size tank, not necessarily.

 

[geoffer]

30 gallon. I currently have 1 peppermint. I've read that they like to be in groups but since my tank is small I thought it would be fun to have a little variety.

 

[bonebrake]

I have a 20 gal. with four peppermints and one skunk cleaner and they get along fine. If you want to mix different species of shrimp avoid the coral banded shrimp, I have read they can become quite aggressive.
:joy:

 

[sea slug]

go for it :jumping:
75 Gal:
3 peps
3 cammelbacks
2 fire shrimp
1 ss cleaner shrimp
hoping to get some sexy's soon