frogspawn and peppermint shrimp

[tsdid]

Has anyone else had problems with peppermint shrimp and a frogspawn. I recently added a frogspawn to my tank and the peppermint shrimp started picking at it. I noticed it did pop one of the small tenticles off but they mostly seem to be picking at the mouth. My assumption is that they are cleaning off the mucasy stuff and maybe the exrement from the mouth area, its only in the morning when the mouth is exposed. Any thoughts?

 

[btldreef]

Originally Posted by tsdid
http:///forum/post/3241735
Has anyone else had problems with peppermint shrimp and a frogspawn. I recently added a frogspawn to my tank and the peppermint shrimp started picking at it. I noticed it did pop one of the small tenticles off but they mostly seem to be picking at the mouth. My assumption is that they are cleaning off the mucasy stuff and maybe the exrement from the mouth area, its only in the morning when the mouth is exposed. Any thoughts?
Just keep an eye on them. For whatever reason Peppermint shrimp are hit or miss and some after months and even years of behaving just start to munch on corals.

 

[tsdid]

how would you be able to tell if its eating the coral vs eating stuff on and around its mouth. Its not accually picking the inflated polyps off, it did one time but I think it was trying to pick the mucasy stuff off. Can the shrimp injure the mouth of the coral?

 

[btldreef]

It's probably just eating the corals "poop" at the moment. That being said, if the coral is stressed, it will expel that brown mucus that you see it eating, therefore, the shrimp could very well be stressing the coral and causing it to do that. You shouldn't see your frogspawn expelling mucus from it's mouth on a daily basis, this is not a good sign. This is why I'm saying keep an eye on the shrimp. It may be stressing the coral out and therefore, will slowly kill it. As the coral dies, the shrimp will keep picking at it more and more.
I had a peppermint do this to a mushroom not too long ago.