Peppermint Shrimp = Devil

[howardj]

Yes, they ate some aiptasia,
Yes, they gave birth, 2 days after being in the tank,
Yes, they jumped on my finger when I put my hand in the tank

Yes, they did try to eat my hermit, mostly did,
Yes, they do steal food from my coral
Yes, they did eat my hermit's eyeballs
Yes, they do knock coral over

They are both pregnant again, I predict one to give birth tonight.. I don't care anymore.. They are going back to the LFS tomorrow!
-rant over

 

[rzande1]

That is what the microwave is for.

 

[howardj]

WHAT?!?!?!
I'm not That cruel!

 

[bugsy]

boil some water

 

[krazykarel]

Dude, have you never had shrimp?!

 

[natclanwy]

I have to say I don't think I will ever have any again either. I bought them to help control my aiptasia population and I think they did more harm than good. Before I had them I had about 30-40 aptasia in various places in my tank that I just couldn't reach to treat with Joes Juice so I got the peppermints while they were around my aptasia problem that had been in check before started growing again and they were eating aptasia witnessed it on a few occasions. Not sure what happened to them (possibly victims to my Sally Lightfoot) but I haven't seen them in about 3 weeks and now my aptasia have quit spreading again. Other than that there were okay didn't really bother anything else other than the mini feather dusters I had all over my tank they pretty much wiped them out.

 

[howardj]

No, I haven't.
I do plan on getting sexy shrimp, though.

 

[sh00tist]

You dont have pepermint shrimp,even though the LFS said it was so,you have camel shrimp and the carnage will continue until you rid your tank of them.

 

[howardj]

No, their not camels, I know what camels look like.
They are peppermint, and they did eat a Few aiptasia. They don't pick at the coral themselves, they just steal the food from them. And they are ALWAYS hungry/looking for food.
My hermit was out of his shell, so they went after him.
But they are indeed Peppermints (Lysmata wurdemanni)

 

[lexluethar]

I had the same problem. IT was not mistaken identity, it was definately a peppermint shrimp (no white stripes, black eyes, no perdominant hump) and it ate sun polyps, some zoos, and my BTA. Ya ya at first it thought it was just cleaning them, and it was for a short period of time. But i think during those cleanings it got some chunks of the flesh, and realized it was good. So without spot feeding it would tear tenticles off my BTA and eat entire sun polyps. No joke, i even let it go for a while because i didn't believe it myself, but after NUMEROUS observations it was true, the little sob was eating everything in my tank. I even tried spot feeding, but that only slowed him down, it didn't stop him from making holes in my BTA.
It should be no suprise that a shrimp that eats aspia, that it can be possible for them to eat other inverts.

 

[acrid]

I was advised to get a peppermint to take care of a mini aiptaisa problem, and he ate all my mini feather dusters too. I am glad to see this is not a unique issue. I am now worried about getting any feather dusters. Maybe I'll take him back.

 

[candycane]

Peppermint shrimp HAVE white stripes, so I don't really get that one. Peppermint shrimp also have a cousin that looks exactly like them that the only difference is the very end of the tail (where it fans out) is dark. THOSE are the ones that are usually more aggressive towards smaller inverts.
ATE the eyeballs off your hermit crab? I would LOVE to see a picture of this shrimp and hermit crab missing eyeballs. I just have never seen a peppermint shrimp eat the eyeballs off of a hermit crab before. I find that amazing, just astounding. Could it maybe be that some species of hermit crabs are prone to get infections on the stalks of the eyes and will retract their eyes back into their sockets until the infection is healed and that the peppermint shrimp didn't in fact EAT YOUR HERMIT CRAB'S EYE BALLS?
Here's the deal with peppermint shrimp. Even the real ones, will eat small inverts. They are good for keeping problematic hitchhikers under control and WILL eat pyramid snails, some flatworms, and aiptasia - because they are all smaller inverts. So are feather dusters though. If you have a "worm in the rock coral", you can pretty much figure that will get eaten. Well everything but the coral. But they will maul small, and I mean small small, tridacnid clams as well. The will take out any invert. that is tiny.
They also DO take food away from corals. Granted it usually does not happen enough to kill the coral, but this will usually happen at night when the shrimp is transparent and you need a flash light to find it. Eventually, one of the shrimp will get eaten for trying to steal food, and then that problem won’t happen again. I would like some pics of both the shrimp and the hermit crab though.