Acan eatting peppermint shrimp...?

[asl4me76]

I have 3 peppermint shrimp in my tank (I like to call them the three amigos). I originally put them in there for aptasia control, as I have a few heads in there of aptasia. While, they are eating some of the aptasia, they're not eatting all.

I have this nice beautiful red acan with quite a bit of heads on it. I woke up this morning and one of the center pieces to just one head of the acan is gone! I mean plumb gone! The rim of the head (where the tentacles are) is still there, but the center where the mouth is .. well is a goner. Now, while I know that if there is some skin left it will ultimately grow back, but seroiusly ... what the flip!

Now, before I am asked, I'll throw it out there. The only inhabitants aside from coral that I have are, 2 clown fish, a tube worm, a lawnmower blenny and ... the 3 amigos.

Anyone experience this or have some insight as to why this occured. I have another acan that this occured with as well, just one head. It's rather bizarre.

[sabodish]

are you sure you have peppermint shrimp and not camel shrimp?

[asl4me76]

100% positive that I don't have camel shrimp.

Here's a photo of one of them:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4007/4201230687_5da2b04e5f_b.jpg

[asl4me76]

He was posing for me that day. Very seldome are all 3 in the same spot, 2 over on one side of the tank and this one in the photo on the other. I guess he/she likes to be a loner :D

[sra127]

my brother put 4 peps in his tank, within 5 min 1 was tearing up his frogspawn while the other ones watched. i guess they have tendancies to pick at lps, at least thats what i've heard on hear...

[asl4me76]

Good thing I work at night. That way I can watch their behavior. I had recentally moved the acan, maybe he wasn't happy with the placement so I put the acan back. We'll see if it recovers. I just fed the tank and took a huge piece of mysis as it floated by. One fat happy guy now.

We'll have to watch and see how things go.

[convict3]

i had 10 peps do the same thing when i first put them in the dt. after a week they almost killed my frogspawn. after i franticly caught 7 and beheaded them i realized that they where starving when i got them and were eating anything avail. i now have 5 in my 75 gal with 4 differant kind of frogspawn and hammers and they dont touch them.

feed them well and they might leave the coral alone.

[asl4me76]

They've got aptasia to eat! I will definitely feeda little more and etc then.. good god. I didn't realize they were such .. piggies :)

[Subie]

I had three mini colonies and I asked the same question. Some people assured me that true peppermint shrimp wouldn't touch my acans unless they were dying or there's some dead tissue. Well, I can tell you out of three mini colonies, I only have 1/2 of one left. My fish and shrimp are well fed, too.

I turned off the lights one evening and saw them picking on the acans. Perhaps you can do the same to verify. I moved the remaining acan piece up onto the live rock in the middle of the tank. So far so good and it's recovering - I'm just glad it was the most expensive acan piece that is still around.

I didn't have aiptasia but bought the peppermint shrimp for diversity. I wouldn't add them to the tank if I could do it over again.

[kevantheman35]

peppermint shrimp are mean, they will rip apart zoas, feather dusters, coco worms, and other corals. Atleast that was my experience so thats why mines gone

[mantaray1201]

I believe, for the most part, this behavior can be chalked up to the pepperment scavaging for food. I dont believe they are eating the acan, just stealing its food.

[asl4me76]

I believe, for the most part, this behavior can be chalked up to the pepperment scavaging for food. I dont believe they are eating the acan, just stealing its food.

I have to beg to differ here. When the center piece of the acan is MISSING and you can see the skeleton ... that means it was eaten.

If it continues, I am going to have to get the peps out of the tank, not quite sure how .. but they will come out as I'd rather figure something else out than have my stuff eaten.

[Subie]

Same here - there was no food in the center of the acan for the shrimp to steal or scavenge. Perhaps I just couldn't see any but if they weren't eating the acans, why were the heads gone in a matter of days?

[smatter]

I had a couple that developed a taste for my acans and duncans. They took care of the aiptasia, but although well fed, still picked at, pestered, and ate coral in my tank. They are talking with their dead ancestors now.

[asl4me76]

I had a couple that developed a taste for my acans and duncans. They took care of the aiptasia, but although well fed, still picked at, pestered, and ate coral in my tank. They are talking with their dead ancestors now.

Hahah .. they keep it up and that's what they'll be doing as well in my tank. They haven't touched my duncan thank god.. but ... I'm definitely going to keep a close eye on them to see what they do next.

[jflick345]

It's not just lps. Something ripped through half of my anthelia colony and I'm blaming the peppermint. My girlfriend fed the fish at 11am the other day and all was well but when I got home at 8pm and went to feed them again half of my probably 30+ anthelia were nothing but stalks. It was one of my favorite softies since it was a very dense colony that just sways in the current. Now I'm trying to figure out how to get rid of the shrimp without tearing apart the tank. I already lost my yasha haze goby to a falling rock and don't want another mishap. I don't get it either since he went 2 months without trouble and I have plenty of tasty looking yellow polyps he can eat! haha

[asl4me76]

Put some food in a trap and let the shrimp go in there :)

[toaster77]

i saw my pep shrimp eat an acan frag after lights went out, needless to say the acan was severley damaged and never recovered!

[asl4me76]

i saw my pep shrimp eat an acan frag after lights went out, needless to say the acan was severley damaged and never recovered!

Is that just the one head? Or is it the acan itself? As the one head may not return and it'd be an eye sore type of hting. But, if there is flesh left, it can come bakc. I have an acan recovering from another peppermint eatting it in a buddies tank.

[dnreef]

I have peppermint shrimp in my mixed reef tank. It is my observation that the peppermint shrimp will eat or pick at any coral (LPS or SPS) that is stressed and ill. Yes,
I've caught them nipping at some corals and in all cases the coral was stressed and ill. The shrimps leave the healthy corals alone. Right now my three peppermints share the tank with acans, favias, blastos, torch corals, a clam and various sps with no problems to report.

[asl4me76]

What are the signs of a stressed acan/ill acan? I haven't been able to quite figure it out. The reason why I said this is that they have all been nice and full. Good sized and all. I haven't been able to quite figure it out?

[Yogre]

I had a torch coral in my tank, had being the operative term. I couldn't figure out why the polyps were just disappearing, until I caught my two peppermint shrimp in the thing one night having a feast.

Before I try any more LPS, those 2 little freaks are going to the LFS.

[OneReef]

I had a peppermint shrimp once that ate my neon candy canes

[K' Family Reef]

interesting...
so peppermints are viewed now as not being reef 'safe'?

didnt think we ever had a problem w/ them and have always viewed them as a 'necessary' part of the clean up crew... #1 for aiptasia control especially.

regards

[Yogre]

interesting...
so peppermints are viewed now as not being reef 'safe'?

didnt think we ever had a problem w/ them and have always viewed them as a 'necessary' part of the clean up crew... #1 for aiptasia control especially.

regards

I dunno. I'm still pretty new at this. The impression I'm getting, though, is that perhaps they should be reef-safe "with caution". Some will eat your valuables, some won't. I'm quite sure mine aren't camel shrimp, and I also busted 'em red-clawed in the act of eating my torch.

[asl4me76]

They should be reef safe .. but who is to say 100% right, especially with them eatting my goods!

[buy_baff]

They steal food from my acans when i target feed. So i have to gurd them while they eat. I also had one that decided stealing wasn't enough and started eating the polyp.

[Daniel Reef]

I have read several threads about peppermint shrimps over the past few months and I have decided that I will not be getting them for my reef tank.

[Gdevine]

Nothing is 100% "reef safe" but I've had pep's in my mixed tank for years and never had a problem...

[dnreef]

What are the signs of a stressed acan/ill acan? I haven't been able to quite figure it out. The reason why I said this is that they have all been nice and full. Good sized and all. I haven't been able to quite figure it out?

I think that's the million dollar question. With acans some of the obvious signs would be discoloration, a tendency to stay closed and not opening up. That being said, I've had peppermint shrimp eat acans. At the time I went through two weeks of water temp in the mid 80's (chiller is in my budget for 2010) and I noticed that my acans just weren't thriving. To me they looked like they shrunk in half. That's when I noticed the shrimp attack. I took the acans out but they just seemed to dissolve over the next couple of days. I currently have acans in the same tank with the same shrimp with no problems. I had and have the same scenario with maxima clams and with SPS. I've seen the peps pick at the unhealthy area (STN?) in new SPS frags and leave the healthy tissue alone. This is why I don't feel that the peppermint shrimp are a threat to health corals. It is also possible that the shrimp pick up changes in the health of their tankmates before we see it manifested as a change in physical appearance.

Peace and goodwill unto the peps!!
Happy Holidays everyone.

[Lightsluvr]

People never listen; if ya got aiptasia, get berghia nudibranchs! Then we wouldn't be having this discussion... :hammer:

LL

[dnreef]

Had aiptasia. Got the peppermints. Aiptasia gone and never come back. The three shrimp cost me all of 15 bucks. I think these guys get a bad rap.

[UnlcleLuke]

From John:

That is because there is at least 4 species that commonly referred to as “peppermint shrimp” within the hobby and only one, Lysmata wurdemanni*, will routinely eat Aptasia. Even though the species’ range geographically overlap their habitat and behavior is different. What is most commonly collected is not wurdemanni but instead L. rathbunae*. The “true” peppermints are most often available from collectors in the southern Florida Keys or Haiti.

Lysmata wurdemanni*
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/4820lysmatawurdemanni.jpg


Lysmata rathbunae*
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/4820lysmatarathbunae1.jpg

*To add to the confusion, species in the Lysmata Genus have undergone a recent reclassification. A western Atlantic peppermint shrimp complex: redescription of Lysmata wurdemanni, description of four new species, and remarks on Lysmata rathbunae . (http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/umrsmas/bullmar/2006/00000079/00000001/art00009?token=004414acaf6d333f25763541333c4a2f245a6a532c31465223744670222e00ed503d)

[asl4me76]

People never listen; if ya got aiptasia, get berghia nudibranchs! Then we wouldn't be having this discussion... :hammer:

LL

What are they? Do they only eat aptasia?

[ralphie]

I pretty much have always had them in my mixed LPS and softies tank. All my corals are healthy and growing. For a while I cut back on feeding so they would eat my aptasia and they did finish them off. I have never seen them eat or go after any of my other corals. In fact, I am going to replace the ones I have just lost in the tank.

[rick12]

i think the coral must be stressed or on the wayout before the pep shrimp would go after them. unless they are stealling food. i think they are just cleaning up bad or poor corals. never seen them go after a healthy coral?
my 2Cents

[the_dizzy52]

that's what I was gonna say. He has the three starved stooges, not amigos. Maybe cholos? If I was a hungry cleaner i would eat the most expensive thing in sight.

[prhoades]

Wow, I didn't have any trouble with mine. They devoured the aptasia, then did nothing but steal the food from my acans and such. However, now I will hesitate before adding them to my 120 when it gets set up. Maybe "test" them in a small tank before adding them to any large tanks.

[asl4me76]

that's what I was gonna say. He has the three starved stooges, not amigos. Maybe cholos? If I was a hungry cleaner i would eat the most expensive thing in sight.

I'm not a he, BTW :)

Anyways, no they are fed and they do eat food and make sure that they are able to get some food. The shrimp did this in the middle of the night, so it wasn't anywhere near feeding time. I have never had any problems with them eatting the food at all. Just caught me off guard, when I saw the center of an acan gone. However, it is recovering nicely. So, maybe something was bothering it and the pep cleaned it per say.

[apshooter]

I was hoping to see an acan eating a shrimp.

[UnlcleLuke]

I was hoping to see an acan eating a shrimp.

x2 then I posted something that might have been a :hammer:

[Daniel Reef]

I've heard the comment about shrimps eating unhealthy corals recently. I was wondering if there is any research out there that supports that comment.