Peppermint shrimp reef safe?

[GothFishKeeper]

Everywhere i look has a different answer on this. I’ve had mine for a couple months now and all has been well, but last week i noticed a couple polyps from my frogspawn floating around the water column which i found odd as my frogspawn was thriving, and one of them landed behind a rock and is still alive. But the colony seems to not be opening fully the last couple days, and i just caught my shrimp sitting on it picking at it. I don’t know if he was specifically picking at the polyps though. Thoughts?

 

[Lavey29]

Might be scavenging for left over fish food in there and knocked off a few polyps in the process.

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

Yes, they could have been scavenging for food which could have been being ingested by the coral.

If they are well fed they usually won't go after coral, however if they are hungry, they will do anything for food, including eating coral or tearing it apart to get food inside the coral. That's why they're reef safe with caution.

 

[Psyduck]

Peppermint shrimps will eat frogpawns. They are not reef safe and will tear euphillia apart. I would take it out sooner than later

 

[NE reefer]

Personally I’d trap it and relocate it to the sump. I’ve had trouble in the past, lost 2 Duncan colonies to rogue peppermint shrimp.

 

[VintageReefer]

Most shrimp aren’t completely reef safe.

I’ve even had tiny sexy shrimp nearly kill torch corals and zoanthids on me

 

[VintageReefer]

Fyi
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/shrimp-sold-as-peppermint-shrimp-eat-zoas-and-lps-beware.1083709/

 

[Lavey29]

I've probably have had a dozen peppers in my tank, currently have 3 and 2 fire shrimp. Never had one issue with my corals.

 

[VintageReefer]

I've probably have had a dozen peppers in my tank, currently have 3 and 2 fire shrimp. Never had one issue with my corals.

Multiple shrimp are sold as peppermints. They look similar but behave different

 

[JonoH]

Have had about half a dozen Peppermint Shrimp in my tank with no issues.

 

[samuelkl]

You may have a camel shrimp instead of a peppermint shrimp, they look similar

 

[gbroadbridge]

Everywhere i look has a different answer on this. I’ve had mine for a couple months now and all has been well, but last week i noticed a couple polyps from my frogspawn floating around the water column which i found odd as my frogspawn was thriving, and one of them landed behind a rock and is still alive. But the colony seems to not be opening fully the last couple days, and i just caught my shrimp sitting on it picking at it. I don’t know if he was specifically picking at the polyps though. Thoughts?

Like most shrimp they scavenge for food, so if they're hungry they will rip open a mouth of a coral to get the food inside.

Once they get a taste they may well decide they like coral snacks.

I've not had a problem as they normally have plenty to eat in my tank other than coral.

 

[Lavey29]

Multiple shrimp are sold as peppermints. They look similar but behave different

True, but I asked them and they started dancing for me so I'm confident.

 

[VintageReefer]

True, but I asked them and got and they started dancing for me so I'm confident.

I trust your experience and the experience of others who have them and they cause no issue.

But I want the public to know, there are multiple varieties and be sure of what you are buying. LFS are not scientists or experts and neither are wholesaler. They will call them all peppermints. And there absolutely is varieties that will harm lps

I posted a link with a reference thread that shows the different varieties

 

[gbroadbridge]

True, but I asked them and got and they started dancing for me so I'm confident.

The shrimp or the sales staff?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ive seen them productive and also turning on softies. They are a specimen like the emerald crab, I do Not trust

 

[56longroof]

I have a dozen peppermint shrimp in my tank. Other than disappearing aptasia I've had no other issues. But, I feed my tank heavy so the clean up crew gets fed well too.

 

[Reef.]

I had a peppermint shrimp, it cleared apts in 2 weeks, then killed a torch and a hammer

I have one left, doesn’t touch corals or apts!

 

[VintageReefer]

Attn “peppermint shrimp” or should I say peppermintposters…

 

[GothFishKeeper]

Thank you everyone for the input!! I’ll keep an eye on him for sure. It may be an issue of not feeding enough because this is all happening in my nano reef where I only have my pygmy wasp who I target feed 4x a week. However it does appear that the shrimp has cleared *most* of the aptasia in the tank so he very well could be moving on to the next most similar thing in the tank, that being the frogspawn. I’m currently giving my skimmer a vinegar soak for a couple days as it’s completely clogged up with algae that I couldn’t scrub off but once it’s running again I’ll try broadcast feeding again.

Also, I got him from saltwateraquarium.com labeled as captive bred so hopefully that eliminates the possibility of him being a false peppermint shrimp. He’s definitely not a camel shrimp though, he doesn’t have the body shape.