Peppermint shrimp and Hammer

[TheRockPlayz]

I have 2 peppermint shrimp and recently bought a hammer coral, almost immediately the shrimp started eating the hammer. I removed the hammer before they could eat too much but is there a way to get the shrimp to not eat the coral? When buying the peppermint shrimp it said they were reef safe and did not mention eating LPS corals. Any advice or recommendations?

 

[BryanM]

I have 2 peppermint shrimp and recently bought a hammer coral, almost immediately the shrimp started eating the hammer. I removed the hammer before they could eat too much but is there a way to get the shrimp to not eat the coral? When buying the peppermint shrimp it said they were reef safe and did not mention eating LPS corals. Any advice or recommendations?

They are not reef safe IMO, and even if one considers them reef safe, after a critter gets a taste for something, there's no training it out of them.

 

[TheRockPlayz]

I have 2 peppermint shrimp and recently bought a hammer coral, almost immediately the shrimp started eating the hammer. I removed the hammer before they could eat too much but is there a way to get the shrimp to not eat the coral? When buying the peppermint shrimp it said they were reef safe and did not mention eating LPS corals. Any advice or recommendations?

They are not reef safe IMO, and even if one considers them reef safe, after a critter gets a taste for something, there's no training it out of them.

Yeah that was my assumption, is there other shrimp that you would consider reef safe or atleast won’t eat corals?

 

[VintageReefer]

You can’t stop it. No shrimp are guaranteed safe with LPS. They have ravenous appetites and will even rip open hammer mouths to pull food from their stomachs

 

[Uncle99]

Yeah that was my assumption, is there other shrimp that you would consider reef safe or atleast won’t eat corals?

All will bother and can not be trusted with anything other than SPS.

Many times they are stealing food items from coral, which over time, kills the coral.

I keep none for this reason even though I love shrimp.

 

[Marine Betta]

I have 2 peppermint shrimp and recently bought a hammer coral, almost immediately the shrimp started eating the hammer. I removed the hammer before they could eat too much but is there a way to get the shrimp to not eat the coral? When buying the peppermint shrimp it said they were reef safe and did not mention eating LPS corals. Any advice or recommendations?

There are many species of “peppermint shrimp” and only a few of them are reef safe. They all look very similar and even the reef safe ones are opportunistic and will sometimes eat coral too. I would remove the shrimp. Unless the hammer was dying, it has a taste for coral. They normally go after zoas first from what I’ve seen, but each individual is different. Did you get a peppermint shrimp for aiptasia? The best option for that would be a Berghia nudibranch. They’re really tiny, but they only eat aiptasia.

 

[BryanM]

You can’t stop it. No shrimp are guaranteed safe with LPS. They have ravenous appetites and will even rip open hammer mouths to pull food from their stomachs

Well that was violently descriptive

 

[VintageReefer]

Well that was violently descriptive

I have seen bumblebee shrimp pry open the tiny mouths on zoanthid, reach inside and pull out chunks of tissue and eat it.

 

[aus1230]

Silly question, but can you share a photo of how you know he's eating the coral because I've seen that my hammer coral looks a little "deflated" on the underside and was wondering the same thing.