Peppermint shrimp eating corals in my tank! Any ideas?

[Rubblereefer]

Guys I am looking for suggestions on ridding my tank of 2 evil peppermint shrimp. I’m pretty sure only one of them has gone completely rogue wreaking havoc on corals and RFA but I don’t want to chance it, so I need to get both of them out of my tank without moving my carefully balanced rockwork if at all possible. Yes they are peppermint shrimp not camel shrimp, and yes they are fed well, to the point of excess, there is no reason to go after Duncan’s, acans, rock flower anemones etc.
They are wicked fast and aware of me wanting to get them out as I have been trying to catch them daily for weeks. I have tried the bottle trap method, but they are too smart. They walk up to the bottle and back away. I’ve almost given up on trying to catch them with the net at this point. I tried putting in the biggest skunk cleaner shrimp I could find, as I was reccomended, and while the SCS doesn’t seem to like the peppermints, he doesn’t attack them unless they come on his turf. These are some big peppermint shrimp btw since I’ve been trying to feed them so much they will leave corals alone. I have 2 more ideas to get the jerks, and looking for suggestions on:

Constructing some kind of mega siphon trap to suck them out?

Critters that will kill them but are reef safe?

Super glue trap? Kalk squirt? Mini spear gun? James Bond stuff?

Any other ideas?

 

[Mark Gray]

Maybe a banded coral shrimp, I had one that did one that did not. I hate peppermint shrimp. You could try a fush trap

 

[Rubblereefer]

Maybe a banded coral shrimp, I had one that did one that did not. I hate peppermint shrimp. You could try a fush trap

Fish trap you mean right? Like one of those wire minnow traps? I doubt they would go in it. these jerks are smart. I’ve tried bottle traps and trap door traps and the bottle trap worked when I moved them from the display to a qt tank last year but now they learned to be wary and won’t touch either.i would try the bcs as a last resort. Buddy of mine had one that beat up corals to get food out and bullied everything in the tank. What do you think about a small snowflake moray?

 

[Mark Gray]

Fish trap you mean right? Like one of those wire minnow traps? I doubt they would go in it. these ******** are smart. I’ve tried bottle traps and trap door traps and the bottle trap worked when I moved them from the display to a qt tank last year but now they learned to be wary and won’t touch either.

Yes I should not type on my phone lol. If they have learned it's a problem. The clear type with the string and the door is what I was talking about tomorrow I can post a picture. Think I bought it from Amazon

 

[EW_Fish]

I would feed my peppermint but he would always take food from my acans and ended up killing one of my rainbows. He would constantly pick at the mouths of the acans.

 

[falconut]

I had to do this many years ago as I had a peppermint shrimp doing the same thing, I would watch him nipping and eating corals.

Trap didn't work & I couldn't remove the rock either. He was so darn smart I couldn't get him into a net even loaded with food.

It took me several nights, but I would up getting him out. I few hours after lights out, I would hold a flashlight in my mouth & aim indirectly (so I could just see where he was but not alert him). Then I would have a large net in each hand and approach from both sides trying to get him in 1. Once I missed, he wouldn't come out again that night. Took a lot of patience.

Good luck, as it wasn't fun & wouldn't wish it on anybody.

 

[MegaZombi]

Yep. Mine ate all my Euphilia. Catch em with a bottle trap. Put some food inside the bottle. Works just like this.

 

[Rubblereefer]

Yep. Mine ate all my Euphilia. Catch em with a bottle trap. Put some food inside the bottle. Works just like this.

Mine have learned not to go in the bottle trap as I mentioned in my original post. Any other ideas?

 

[Rubblereefer]

Turkey blaster spear gun is going to be tonight’s attempt at getting em

 

[Backreefing]

Get plastic tubs and literally drain every gallon out of the aquarium and pick him up . You don’t have to remove rocks probably. Don’t worry about corals they can be out of the water for a short time .

 

[Dom]

I think you have the right idea...

Get a hose large enough for them to get through and siphon them into your sump.

 

[MegaZombi]

Mine have learned not to go in the bottle trap as I mentioned in my original post. Any other ideas?

Put it in at night only, trap on its side. Mysis shrimp worked the best as bait. Nabbed both of the bastages overnight.

 

[Rubblereefer]

Put it in at night only, trap on its side. Mysis shrimp worked the best as bait. Nabbed both of the bastages overnight.

I tried trust me, they are smart, they know it’s a trap. I tried a different trap recently, they won’t touch it either.

 

[Rubblereefer]

Almost got one of the little devils with the turkey blaster spear gun, got him with a glancing blow and he’s been hiding since then. I think with a few more tries, and redesigning the spear tip to be more of a multi pronged pitchfork style I will be able to take him out eventually, as the skewer is faster than the shrimp. Tomorrow I’m going to call BRS and explain this siphon idea and asks them to put together the parts I’ll need. I do hate these shrimp but would prefer to nab them alive if possible.

 

[Rubblereefer]

Get plastic tubs and literally drain every gallon out of the aquarium and pick him up . You don’t have to remove rocks probably. Don’t worry about corals they can be out of the water for a short time .

Thanks for the idea, but I kind of have a bare bottom area under he rockwork so that is going to be the last area with water in the tank if I did that, so I’d end up having to move all the rocks that way.

 

[Rubblereefer]

Here’s a pic of the trap door trap I tried, baited with mysis. If you look close you can see the little bastardo munching on my Duncan coral in the background

 

[BabyBoyGreene]

Whenever I clean the glass or do something, one or both of mine hang onto my hand and pick at it... it was kind of creepy at first but I’m used to it. I guess they must know I’m not trying to catch them.