Rabid Peppermint Shrimp!!! Beware!

[Reef Fever]

I had a pretty serious problem with those "free anemones" recently in a 20 Gallon tank. I added 3 peppermint shrimp and 2 Berghia nudibranches. They are now pretty much gone, and I think the shrimp did most of the work since they were put in about a week before the Berghia and the Glass Bastages were already disappearing.

However, I had one particular shrimp that proved to be a problem. I put a freshly attached Xenia frag in my tank, and lovingly watched it begin to open and pulse. Almost immediately, this one shrimp pounced on it and began ripping pieces of Xenia away and stuffing it down his translucent throat!!! :x

Then, when I tried to catch the little bugger- he ran up to my finger and started trying to feed on my finger. (Of course, he was unable to pinch enough to feel anything but it was kinda funny!)

I think that this particular shrimp had decided that anything soft in there was food! I removed him and one other somewhat brave shrimp and promptly traded them back in to the store. There is one more still in there that hides all the time and I hope will behave.

Has anyone else seen this? I am sure that it was a true peppermint and not a camelback. I only saw him go after Xenia, but he attacked it so ferociously that it is still barely hanging on after his few seconds of destruction.

 

[KMTaquarium]

peppermints are scavengers and are known for messing with corals when the corals produces a protective slime coat- the coral secreteing slimes, to the shrimp can be percieved as dying and peppermints are known to be BAD for doing this- which is why it might of mistaken the freshly fragged xenia as food/dying coral
I am pretty sure i am correct but if anyone else thinks other wise feel free to correct me
-kevin

 

[karlas]

i only had 1 peppermint and he got shipped back to the lfs. i put him in to take out the aptasia and instead he got a taste for my feather dusters. he was putting holes in the side of the tube knocking over the top part and pulling out the worms. they are the kind that grow in a cluster and he was taking them out like a lawnmower. i caught him after i turned the lights out he climbed on top of the rock and cornered him with 2 fish nets.

 

[gcantu]

I had the same thing happen. Only the two peppermint shrimp I had began to attack and rip apart my serpent starfish. First they went for the head and then it was all over. By the time I got home from work, they had killed him. I tried to see if there was any way the starfish might regenerate by putting it in quarantine tank, but I was too late. :x