Peppermint shrimp vs Duncan

[DustyBootsAZ]

I put my first corals in my tank today. A small Duncan and two Zoas. The second I put the Duncan in the tank and turned around, one of my peppermint shrimp was on it tearing it up. I immediately pulled it and put it in my QT tank for now, but what the heck?! I thought peppermint shrimp were supposed to reef safe?! Anyone have any tips?

 

[Dread Pirate Dave]

I put my first corals in my tank today. A small Duncan and two Zoas. The second I put the Duncan in the tank and turned around, one of my peppermint shrimp was on it tearing it up. I immediately pulled it and put it in my QT tank for now, but what the heck?! I thought peppermint shrimp were supposed to reef safe?! Anyone have any tips?

Do you have some pictures of the shrimp? It is possible that it isn't an actual peppermint shrimp. How often do you feed the shrimp? I had one that attacked a new blastomussa frag but after feeding the tank more heavily then it settled down.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I put my first corals in my tank today. A small Duncan and two Zoas. The second I put the Duncan in the tank and turned around, one of my peppermint shrimp was on it tearing it up. I immediately pulled it and put it in my QT tank for now, but what the heck?! I thought peppermint shrimp were supposed to reef safe?! Anyone have any tips?

Reason I dont have peppermints, they do this with many soft coral and may be false peppermint. I have an opossum running around the neighborhood and trust him more than I trust peppermints and emerald crabs

 

[LPS Bum]

This is precisely why I don’t keep them in my LPS dominated reef. I’ve seen it happen way too many times, especially when feeding corals.

 

[christinna77]

I've got a few captive bred peppermints in my mostly LPS tank including a large duncan, zoas, mushrooms, hammers, torches, etc., and have never seen them do any damage to any of my corals. But I do feed pretty heavily, so they probably don't feel the need to eat anything else.

 

[skey44]

I vote that it’s unlikely that an actual peppermint shrimp will kill a healthy coral. It’s very likely something else is at play… maybe it’s a camel shrimp and not a peppermint shrimp, maybe the coral had decaying tissue on it and it was just cleaning up? I have extensive experience with both peppermint shrimp and emerald crabs being wrongly accused of coral and fish death. I’ve personally never experienced an issue in my systems.
Just my opinion based on personal experiences and previously working at LFS.
We tend to over-react to innocent or misidentified critters just doing their jobs.
I can’t tell you how many times this happens in the LFS environment. Blue leg hermit crabs are always “killing fish” according to many customers when they’re just cleaning up decay/waste in the tank.

 

[DustyBootsAZ]

I put my first corals in my tank today. A small Duncan and two Zoas. The second I put the Duncan in the tank and turned around, one of my peppermint shrimp was on it tearing it up. I immediately pulled it and put it in my QT tank for now, but what the heck?! I thought peppermint shrimp were supposed to reef safe?! Anyone have any tips?

Do you have some pictures of the shrimp? It is possible that it isn't an actual peppermint shrimp. How often do you feed the shrimp? I had one that attacked a new blastomussa frag but after feeding the tank more heavily then it settled down.

They are peppermints. I have 2. The other one didn’t pay any attention to the corals. I feed twice, sometimes 3 times a day.

 

[Tahoe61]

They aren't.

 

[UMALUM]

Trust that even true peps will eventually go after LPS. Could just be certain individuals but once they start they usually won't stop. I've always only used reeftopia and once the aiptasia fade some of them target the acans. Sinking pellets might help but I've always had to trap em once they take to a certain coral.

 

[DustyBootsAZ]

I put my first corals in my tank today. A small Duncan and two Zoas. The second I put the Duncan in the tank and turned around, one of my peppermint shrimp was on it tearing it up. I immediately pulled it and put it in my QT tank for now, but what the heck?! I thought peppermint shrimp were supposed to reef safe?! Anyone have any tips?

Do you have some pictures of the shrimp? It is possible that it isn't an actual peppermint shrimp. How often do you feed the shrimp? I had one that attacked a new blastomussa frag but after feeding the tank more heavily then it settled down.

I have 2 of them that have been in the tank since I started about 3 months ago. This is the first corals I’ve added, and to be fair I hadn’t fed them yet when I put it in so maybe it just got excited. No idea. I’m hearing a lot of mixed opinions on whether peppermints really are reef safe or not now

 

[Sam7]

I put my first corals in my tank today. A small Duncan and two Zoas. The second I put the Duncan in the tank and turned around, one of my peppermint shrimp was on it tearing it up. I immediately pulled it and put it in my QT tank for now, but what the heck?! I thought peppermint shrimp were supposed to reef safe?! Anyone have any tips?

same old argument going on for years...yes they eat coral...no they dont........I will add that they do eat lot different types of soft or lps corals. Over feeding or not they will in most cases in my opinion

 

[NCsalt]

Pretty confident my peppermint went after my acans.

 

[DexterKarin]

I bought a peppermint from a top supplier that went crazy on a frogspawn the moment I put him in tank. Dispatched the shrimp. Bought another a couple months later that did his job perfectly and haven't seen another aiptasia since and all of corals fine. It can happen and I doubt there is anything you can do about that particular shrimp. Even though I had that experience I would try another shrimp. I love them, but there is that risk.