Does anyone else get mauled by their peppermint shrimp?

[CoreyK]

I discovered today that my peppermint will absolutely not leave my hand alone when it is in the tank. As soon as I put my hand in it will rush over and demand a ride. I don't mind, it feels pretty cool crawling around on me, but I was wondering if this was normal?

[tmantaylor18]

usually these guys are shy, that is awesome, he is acting like a cleaner shrimp.

[Moonstream]

after I had mine for a few months he would do that, I miss the little guy.

[CoreyK]

Hehe. I bought him for aiptasia removal and he's turning out to be quite a character. He's always up to something

[Jay03GT]

Both of mine do that. First time my wife freaked out like I was getting attacked by a barracuda or something, kinda funny.

[SCIFI_3D_zoo]

Like a cleaner shrimp... they are cleaning parasites and whatnot from your skin. Maybe they think your arm is a big sea snake, who knows.

[atvdave]

My 2 cleaner shrimp do the same thing.. Pretty cool, and fun to watch.

[sprinj76]

My cleaner shrimp always jumps on my hand as soon as its in the tank. I find it pretty funny.

[lakwriter]

my pep does it too. freaked me out the first couple times :)

[JoeMomma]

My peps do it as well. I'll have 2-3 shrimp on my arm if I stick it in the tank.

[moogoomoogoo]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12239458#post12239458 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by CoreyK
Hehe. I bought him for aiptasia removal and he's turning out to be quite a character. He's always up to something


How well did it actually work to get rid of the aipasia? I am starting to have an outbreak.

[JoeMomma]

My 3 took out what few aiptasia I had overnight. Although my LFS said that the ones that eat aiptasia are the carribean variety. Not sure if thats true but it worked for me.

[Denver aquarist]

The shrimp I added the last two times have taken care of the aiptasia.

[Onte]

I bought 3 to control a small amount of aiptasia, also. I've never seen them actually eat it but all but one of the aiptasia is gone (remaining chunk is about the size of a quarter).

My Peps appear to clean my blenny. They're still very shy of human arms but they somehow love the blenny.

[EpidemicScuzzy]

I also bought 3 to control aiptasia. They did a pretty terrible job though. I believe they ate a couple really tiny ones before they all decided to retire from active duty. Now they are completely MIA, either worthlessly adding to my bioload or experiencing the throes of decomposition.

Back to the original topic, I had a few cleaner shrimp who enjoyed cleaning my hand. I really liked the Naruto-style backflips they would do to jump on once they realized I was messing around in the tank.