Do peppermint shrimps eat bristleworms?

[Anonymous]

About 4 or 5 months ago I tossed a peppermint shrimp into my refugium because there were some aptasia growing in it. Today I was weeding out the macroalgae. usually it is swarming with hundreds if not thousands of bristleworms. They are all gone. Every damn one of them. Could the peppermint shrimp have eaten them?

 

[danmhippo]

Never seen it happen in my tank. I would sure hope they will put a stop to the bristtle worm population though. I always end up with swelled fingers every time I prune my sump....

 

[aquarist=broke]

Perhaps the scavengering shrimps are eating all the excess food that the bristle worms usually eat. I notice when the excess food in my total system lowers, the worms kinda disappear. Just at thought...

 

[Anonymous]

is this the same refugium that is mentioned in your other thread?

 

[Mike02]

I have to agree with the dissappearing food theory. i used to have alot of bristleworms when i first set up my tank. the problem for the worms is that my tank has no substrate so they lived in the rocks. my biggest worm got chopped up by a powerhead and most of the other worms just disappeared. i would assume it is because there is no substrate and no excess food lying around. they ate up most of the hair algae too. alot of that when my tank was new. however, one problem here: i do have a peppermint shrimp but i just cant imagine it eating a bristleworm.

 

[Anonymous]

Well, I had a thriving, growing population of them and all of a sudden it crashed COMPLETELY. 100% extermination.

I since noticed 100% extermination of my green zoanthids, which are known to be pep. shrimp food (I have some in my main tank too).

I have a 4"+ dsb in the refugium and if anything have been putting too much nutrients into my system.

 

[danmhippo]

How long ago from you tossed in the Pep shrimps till the total annilhilation of BW and zoanthid?

 

[liquid]

After my experiences with Peps and my bristleworm population suddenly going from teeming to non-existant, I would have to say a hearty YES that they have the potential to go after your bristleworms and all other polychaetes.

Shane

 

[JeremyR]

I've seen it in print somewhere that they eat bristleworms, don't remember where.. but they do eat them. Little ones anyways.

 

[shalegac]

My pep shrimp tried to eat my finger today while I was moving rock.

 

[AFH]

The answer to your question is yes; I have seen the peps in my tank eating baby bristle worms. I purchased about 6 of them from IPSF and put them in the tank about 30 second later they were cut in half and eaten. That is my experience.

 

[Anonymous]

well, where were you when everyone was trying to rid their tanks of these? :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

Yeah, these were IPSF bristleworms I bought as a mixture of stuff to get the refugium going. The thing is, I still have a few aptasia in the main tank (which has 3 or 4 pep. shrimp now). Damn things went after my green zoanthids instead.

Thanks for confirming this. I thought the question was probably based on an idiotic inference, but if you have seen them do it, I am convinced that is what happened now.

Wow. I guess I'll be getting rid of that guy before I re-spike the refugium.

Now here's a sick thought -- could my deep sand bed in the refugium have become a much worse denitrification system because the bristleworm population was exterminated?

 

[Anonymous]

How long ago from you tossed in the Pep shrimps till the total annilhilation of BW and zoanthid?

4 to 6 months. I have to confess to not keeping a careful record of this. I can't remember exactly when I bought these, but it was at least that long ago.

 

[robbinson]

Thats an irony - I had a colony of about 8 peppermint shrimp that disappeared months ago - I've been speculating whether my bristle worms (which appear to include at least 1 large fire worm I've been trying to trap without success) could be the culprit - clearly my peppermint shrimp did not eat my bristleworms. I do not have other predators in my tank that would go after peppermint shrimp.

The only things I know of that will go after brisstleworms are arrowcrabs and some species of wrasses or squirrel fishes (though none of those are reef safe - or I'd put them in my tank to clear out my bristleworms.

 

[Anonymous]

Darn things eat zoanthids but not aptasia.

 

[Anonymous]

What a mighty bump...

Just to confirm, I've witnessed with my own eyes a PS pulling a bristleworm out of the rock and eating it up greedily...

Tom