Peppermint shrimp and Corals

[mike731]

I just acquired some sps frags and noticed that my peppermints are picking at them...are they cleaning them or is this a damaging action?

 

[nycbob]

i'd say they cleaning them. but peppermints wil eat a few polpys if they r underfed. also, make sure it is a peppermint and not a camel shrimp, since they hv similar appearance.

 

[sambasam]

no they are just cleaning them and ridding them of dead/decaying material.

 

[mike731]

I checked the frag this morning, and it is completely destroyed. All of the polyps are gone...a very few remain.

Not to mention my protein skimmer was completely full...overnight, that has never happened.

 

[jmick]

I've read that captive grown pepperments have been known to eat acros.

 

[peef]

My peppermints started to do this to my hammer and bubble coral. I just started to feed them more and they stopped. When they are really hungry they eat ANYTHING they can get their stupid claws onto. I want mine out now but can't catch them. I want to replace with sexy shrimp.

 

[donald]

I just put a huge feather duster in my tank yesterday and my peppermint shrimp crawled up the rock and pulled a feather off and started eating it

He has not been back

I guess he didn't like it. or it filled him up for now

 

[florida joe]

I have three feather dusters in my tank no problem tried to introduce two more over a 3 week time frame my peppermint killed the two new ones go figure

 

[mike731]

My Peppermints have been removed from my tank and everything looks great. I have a few zoos and I thought that they were unhappy, and just didnt want to open. Turns out, they were open the damn shrimp ate all of the tenticles...they are just now growing back. As for my coral...it has made a spectacular recovery and is looking very nice. A little extra time for the lighting and a little extra calcium every day worked for me.

 

[grabbitt]

Originally Posted by mike731
My Peppermints have been removed from my tank and everything looks great. I have a few zoos and I thought that they were unhappy, and just didnt want to open. Turns out, they were open the damn shrimp ate all of the tenticles...they are just now growing back. As for my coral...it has made a spectacular recovery and is looking very nice. A little extra time for the lighting and a little extra calcium every day worked for me.
Are you sure they weren't camelbacks? They look very similar, but will do some damage to coral without hesitation...

 

[mike731]

Originally Posted by GRabbitt
Are you sure they weren't camelbacks? They look very similar, but will do some damage to coral without hesitation...
I have been looking at pictures online of the camelbacks vs. peppermints and peppermints dont have green eyes and they have parallel lines that go down thier body. One of the ones I have has a line that goes perdendicular the other lines. Also I found that camelbacks have circles as well... is there any definitive distinguishing marks that I can look for?

 

[elitephoto]

I have 2 peppermint in my tank.... with thousands of dollars in mixed corals including everything mentioned in previous posts... I have not had one problem with my peppermint shimp destroying anything.

 

[gillyweed]

Camelbacks are called so because they have a large "Hump" in their back. This is a good giveaway, though not guaranteed...

They also seem to me to have a longer "nose"
Peppermint:

Camelback:

Good luck!

 

[fish freak2012]

ihave one pepermint shrimp and so far it hasnt killed much except my second small featherduster he hasnt affected my corals much