Peppermint Shrimp attack!

[nemo1234]

ok, kinda funny but yet irritating story...
I'm looking into getting peppermint shrimp for my tank, so it eats all of my 13 aispatsia (or however you spell it). I was talking to someone that had one of those and this is what she told me...
She had one that ate EVERYTHING! It ate all her fish that were in there. They would go looking for fish that had disappeared, couldn't find them. They checked behing the tank, around the tank, moved everything around.... fouind NOTHING! So, she would even go buy mor fish and they would disappear within a week. She couldn't figure out what was going on. She then bought a medium clownfish. The next couple days, she looked in the tank and saw that her peppermint shrimp was eating it, and that's how her fish kept disappearing. She didn't think it was possible, but it was.....
Now, has anyone else had problems with their shrimp, or was that just a tempramental one? I want to get one, since my LFS is selling it for $7. Is that a good deal to?

 

[reefkprz]

Peppermint shrimp will dine on already dead fish, here fish were probably dying and the cleaner peppermint was doing its job, cleaning up the mess. getting caught eating the corpse in no way signifies that the shrimp killed the fish.

 

[bs21]

every pepermint shrimp i have seen in LFS is really tiny i don't see how it could be killing fish. definately more likely fish were dieing for another reason and it was eating the corpse.

 

[luca brasi]

The only thing I've ever seen my peppermints kill were duster clusters.

 

[nick76]

ive had them nip at some corals, but no they shouldnt attack fish, their very skiddish and run away from everything that moves.

 

[jacrmill]

i have peppermint shrimp, they seem to be the easiest thing in my tank. I bought them for the same reason you are looking at getting some, aptasia. If I were you I wouldnt worry about getting them for that, just go get a thing of Joe's Juice and kill every aptasia you see, but do it soon. 13 will go to 30 will go to 100 and so on. What I am saying is go get some joe's juice and kill them all now. Dont wait on your peppermints.
I fought aptasia for a month or so. I would kill them about once a week or so. Finally I got totally sick of them, and killed everyone that I saw for about 2 weeks. If I was looking at my tank and saw one, I would kill it right then.
Did that for a little while, and havent seen any aptasia (knock on wood) for probably 2 weeks or so. But I still have happy healthy peppermint shrimp. They just didnt really seem to like the aptasia.

 

[renogaw]

Originally Posted by bs21
every pepermint shrimp i have seen in LFS is really tiny i don't see how it could be killing fish. definately more likely fish were dieing for another reason and it was eating the corpse.

my peppermints grew to about 2" long

 

[msez2u]

I dont think it was the peppermint that was killing the fish. Like someone else said they are non agressive little critters. I like mine he runs to the front of the tank when he see's me because he knows I've got food and he patiently waits for it.

 

[nemo1234]

just to make it clear.... it was not a peppermint shrimp. I showed them a picture, and they said it wasn't one.Sorry for the confusion, and thanks to all who responded and helped

 

[stanlalee]

your friend is an entertaining story teller I'll give her that lol. peppermint shrimp dont kill fish and most common shrimp of simular size (skunk, fire, coral banded) keep peppermint shrimp confined to the other side of the tank even if there are five of em. they've been known to enjoy eating a coral or two for an unlucky few people (which really isn't much different than eating atapsia).

 

[ice4ice]

Originally Posted by Nick76
ive had them nip at some corals, but no they shouldnt attack fish, their very skiddish and run away from everything that moves.
Peppermint shrimp do not nip on corals. There is another shrimp that looks similar to the peppermint shrimp: Camel back shrimp. Some LFS will mis-label them as peppermint shrimp. Similar in coloration but shaped differently.

 

[nick76]

Originally Posted by Ice4Ice
Peppermint shrimp do not nip on corals. There is another shrimp that looks similar to the peppermint shrimp: Camel back shrimp. Some LFS will mis-label them as peppermint shrimp. Similar in coloration but shaped differently.
Sorry to say, but they do sometimes nip at "some" corals. They will go after anything new I put into my tank at the time until I was able to figure out how to distract them with food. After that they usually leave it alone, But they do go after Zoos and will eat some polyps.
I am well educated on the differences and behaviors of both shrimp species. The lfs I go to does not even sell camelbacks.

 

[peef]

Don't know if you classify this as "nippin" but my peppermint shrimp will rush to anything new I put in the tank and clean the living heck out it. They always crawl over my corals and pick food out from between the polyps that they (polyps) missed. I have three, they cleaned out around 45-60 aiptasia for me in about 4 days. They have never touched my coral but they will meticulously clean the coral of any left over materials.