How much pestering can zoas handle?

[dashielle89]

I just got my first zoanthids online last weekend (was ordering fish online and wanted to bump up my shipping). It is a pretty big rock with about 100 polyps on it, and it seems to be healthy, but my peppermint shrimp have been bothering it quite a bit. I know they are not really reef safe, but they aren't eating it or anything, just constantly cleaning it. I don't know how much the zoas can handle before they die.

The first day I put them in the peppermints cleaned it quite a bit during the night, but I didn't think anything of it since they like to clean things that are new to the tank and the rock looked like it had a bit of gunk on it. But now a week later my fatter peppermint is still going at it. Today he was cleaning it for about 2 hours straight, he took a break to look for food when I fed my fish, then he went right back to cleaning it and has been doing so for about an hour. They didn't even get a chance to all open back up yet.

So do you think he will bother them to death? I don't have a refugium to put them in or anything, and I don't how I would catch them either if they need to be removed.

[windyridge]

I have zoas and 3 peppermint shrimp in a 29g tank and although the shrimp clean the zoas frequently as well as all the other corals, there has never been any harm done. The shrimp get a fair amount of leftover food tho', maybe you just need to feed them. I haven't had my shrimp spend two hours on any corals tho'.

[A. Grandis]

I've had a problem a while ago with an anemone and some zoas after adding 2 small shrimps to my 75gal.
The shrimps were cleaning and stilling food from the anemone and zoas' mouths.
The zoas bleached and the anemone bleached and died.
The episode lasted only 2 days and I've lost the anemone.
Removed the shrimps from the system.
The zoas took 6 months to get better. The colony didn't die.

I would watch and make sure the shrimps are not hurting them.

Most of the people that have shrimps in their aquariums for years don't have any problems, and their shrimps kinda clean the inverts too.

I think that if they are just closed while the shrimps are "cleaning", there will be a time the shrimps will move on to another spot and they will open without further problems.
I would just keep watching for now...

Grandis.

[Curtispants]

There are different types of 'peppermint shrimp' as well. You might want to ID the ones you have. I've known camelback shrimp to be called pep's by some who didn't know better - and camelbacks are not reef safe.

To answer the original question, zoanthids are pretty hardy and usually hard to kill. Unless they're in my tank and cost a lot of money. lol

[dashielle89]

Yes mine are definitely peppermints not camels. They sold both at the lfs I got them at and the camels looked very different. Originally got them for aiptasia and they ate it within hours of putting them in the tank.

I do feed them as well. I give them mysis with a baster almost every day and they eat a ton. They'll just sit on the baster and keep eating until everything in its gone, it's crazy how fat they are.

I guess I'll just keep an eye on the zoas for now and make sure they all open tomorrow. Hopefully the shrimp will get bored of cleaning them so much.