Pepermint shrimp - Poll

[Fish]

Just wondering people's experience with these guys. I don't have any aptaisia but I bought one because it was pretty small and cheaper than the other shrimp :redface: .
Will it become a threat to any corals or snails? I'm planning on keeping stomatella and ceriths. Thanks.



- Chad

[Bob I]

I have never seen a Peppermint be a problem with anything you mentioned. Where did you get it BTW. I am starting to get some Aiptasia. :mad:

[Fish]

Thanks Bob. I got it at Big Als a couple months ago. I don't know if they still have any but it was only about $12 or $13 if I remember right.

- Chad

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Nope. Not a problem. Main thing is that they tend to hide a lot more than skunk cleaner shrimp.

Anthony

PS. never found one that would eat my aiptasia either though :mad:

[Fish]

Another point for the pepermint!
Fortunately, this tank is small enough that this shrimp is usually visible and seems to have overcome its shyness. Thanks.
- Chad

[lil_clownfish13]

point against: my peppermints harrassed the hell out of my corals...until i got rid of them...

[Pansy-Paws]

Our experience was definately on the negative side ... :redface:

We had three peppermint shrimp in a 72 gallon, and they eventually cleared the tank of all fan worms. In addition, a nice Hawaiian feather duster bit the dust with the shrimp sticking their claws into the tube.

The shrimp were also caught several times with margarita snail meat in their grasp. Stomatella snails (and a lettuce nudibranch) also perished, whereas ceriths and turbos were safe.

As far as aiptaisia, the shrimp performance varied ... depending on how much fish food they were able to snag ... when they were hungry, small aptasia's were targeted, otherwise, not. :sad: We've found that they will do well clearing aptasia if they have no other source of food.

[mpishi]

my experience was that they were very effective in clearing aptasia but only the second time i bought them and verified they had been shipped from a carribean site

no negative behaviour noted but it was before i had xenia, clove polyps and star polyps - kind of curious how my luck would be now since aptasia is back

[Fish]

These are the kind of experiences that had me nervous. I know that there have been reports on both sides of the fence. Is it a matter of pepermints causing more trouble as they get older, or is it just that some individuals are destined to cause trouble from the start? Is it possible that there is a type of shrimp being sold as perpermints when they aren't really?
I guess all I can do is watch the tank and pull it at the first sign of trouble...

- Chad

[Rikko]

Peppermints are a Caribbean species. I constantly see peps on SE Asian lists - they're camel shrimp and those guys are little bastards.

[Richer]

I bought a couple of peppermints a little while back... they were so young, you couldn't even see the strips on them. For awhile, I thought they died in my tank until I cleaned my sump... and there they were, about twice as big :mrgreen: .

They don't touch anything in my tank and only come out when food is present in the water column. Every now and then I would see one of them carrying eggs, which I assume turns into good quality food when the larvae get released into the water.

-Rich

[Fish]

I guess as long as I get the "Caribbean pepermints" :razz: I should be ok. I almost wonder now if I should have got two - between a spawning pair of shrimp and some "smoking" stomatella snails, I would have live food taken care of. Hmmm....
Thanks for shedding some light on this everyone.
- Chad

[Pansy-Paws]

As far as I'm aware, we had Carribean peppermint shrimps ... here's a photo of one of the 3 culprits.

http://www.canreef.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=2647

Good luck :biggrin:

... careful watching and an action plan for transfer into another tank in the event of deviant behaviour would be prudent (although your frustration level will sky rocket trying to catch them if they're in a tank with live rock) :mrgreen:

[Delphinus]

My tank used to have tonnes of stomatella snails until I had cleaner shrimp and peppermints. Basically the little bugs (sorry Bob I still call them bugs :razz: ) are hungry little buggers. They pretty much wiped out my main tank of stomatella. I would still have stomatella in the sump and whatnot (where there were no predators). But whether they'll develop a taste is not a given (I would think). So, hit and miss.

Also I should mention that over the last .. um .. 7 (?) years in the hobby, I've tried buying peppermints on at least 3 occasions with the specific intent for them to munch on aiptasia, and in each case they never did. I found them interesting in their own right and I don't mind having them, but they have never fulfilled the purpose of "aiptasia muncher" for me (unlike the countless stories of others). I guess I got fussy shrimp. "Ew aiptasia I'm not eating that!" They didn't have mothers that forced them to eat their vegetables .. er .. aiptasia... I guess.

Just my $0.02 ... :biggrin: Your mileage may vary and dealer may sell for less.