Peppermint Shrimp & Xenia

[DarwinTheDog]

Hi!

Has anyone had problems with their peppermint shrimp eating xenia? I have two peppermints in a 25 gallon and one in a 29 gallon. The shrimp were introduced to take care of a mild aiptasia problem, which they did. I have noticed polyps (xenia and daisy) disappearing in both tanks, and suspect the shrimp. In one tank it looks like someone trimmed the polyps, almost looks like flowers with their petals pulled off. Anyway anyone have any thoughts??? I think I might send the shrimp to the refugium for a (indefinate) time out.

Thanks!

 

[White-Queen]

I didn't have any xeia in my tank with my peppermint but I loved that litle guy until my green brittle star ate him......so if you decide to get rid of yours......

Angela <><

P.S. The brittle star no longer lives with me

 

[DarwinTheDog]

Sorry to hear about your shrimp. We like ours too, but it may be time to move on for them. You may see them end up on the trading post board! BTW some green brittle stars are highly predatory, not always reef safe. While most brittles and serpents are fine there is a species of green that is a monster.

 

[fishfarmer]

I have a pair of peppermint shrimp and xenia elongata and xenia umbellata. No problems here. I do feed the tank heavily.

 

[cubera]

We keep peppermint shrimp in (mated) pairs in all of our tanks and have had no problem with them eating Xenia. They will feed on yellow A.millepora when they are very hungry. This all stops when you hand feed them some frozen brine shrimp. They love to eat the shrimp and the dead skin off your hand.

 

[bgywrinkle]

I aske the same question on an other board abt a week ago. The end result was that peppermint shrimp will eat decaying and dead matter but will not attack xenia. It was suggested that there might be another culprit in the tank that I didn't know about.
Quess what -- there where -- two little brown hairy crabs.

Removed these delights to the refugium and the Xenia is healing and producing little Xenia anywhere it was damaged.

It was also suggested that the peppermint shrimp would help the Xenia recover by removing dead or decaying tissue.

HTH

Regards,
Don

 

[DarwinTheDog]

I did a little more research....I did a search of Dr. Shimek's forum (RC), and he seems to indicate that the peppermint shrimp could be responsible for eating polyps. When asked if peppermints are reef safe, Dr. Shimek said "no". On a number of post he indicated that the shrimp could be responsible for eating polyps from Anthelia to Zooanthids. Anyway I (actually my GF caught them...I gave up) have removed the shrimp from one tank and left one in another (ok so we couldn't catch the little guy). We will see what happens!!

 

[pathos]

I have two peppermint shrimp, a coral banded shrimp, one emerald crab and one strawberry crab in my tank, so to be fair i'm not exactly sure who is munching on my xenia and polyps, but I suspect it's the peps. I caught one with the flashlight near the xenia one night when it first started to disappear. i intend on putting the peps in the sump, as i now believe they are not reef safe

 

[Mike02]

one of the petals on my clove clavularia are missing, but i think the peppermint shrimp might've done that by accident since it picks around polyps. I got my shrimp 3wks ago to eat the aiptasia which it did, but i havent fed it since. I've tried 2 times with flake fish food but the shrimp wont eat it. I assume it is eating well since it shed last nite (3rd time in 3 weeks).

 

[esmithiii]

I have two species of xenia, one is white and the other is tan colored. Something has been feeding on the tan colored species. I have one peppermint shrimp which decimated all the aptasia in my 55G and then moved on to eat all the yellow polyps (Parazoanthus axinella) in the tank. I think he may be the culprit after reading this post.

Cubera:

Are you sure your shrimp aren't skunk cleaner shrimp (hypolysmata grabhami)? They are red and white. My peppermint shrimp have been incredibly shy and would never approach a hand, regardless of how hungry they are.

E

 

[Anonymous]

Two peppermint shrimp, 75 gallon tank, and have had 5 different species of xenia.

No conflicts so far after 7 months.

Peace,

Chip