The Great Peppermint Debate: Are They Truly Reef Safe?

[Ezreal]

I thought all peppermint 'dance' side to side? We find them locally in the Gulf and I've added them to my tank no issues. Everyone's experience will vary; nothing is truly reef safe, my clown loves nipping my frogspawn for example, sending floating pieces around the tank.

Camel shrimp are the ones to always avoid in a reef tank.

The peppermints I get usually look like:

Whereas camels are more fancy:

Both hide in the crevices of your rocks and are rarely seen until night.

Top pic looks like L.B rather than L.W

Has he been reef safe for you?

 

[Rjukan]

So after doing a little taxonomic research I have read the Lysmata Bogessi is more trusted than L.Wurdemanni due to its more reef safe nature. I ordered a pepper shrimp from https://www.reefcleaners.org/aquarium-store/peppermint-shrimp expecting it to be L.W but on inspection of the picture it appears to be L.Bogessi which prompted the research. This may be the hidden key to an aiptasia free safe reef cleaner!!

Little cheat sheet I found

Thank you for this information, it could be very helpful to a lot of people. I knew of the difference between camel and peppermint, but I didnt know there were different peppermint shrimp that looked so similar.

 

[Ezreal]

Thank you for this information, it could be very helpful to a lot of people. I knew of the difference between camel and peppermint, but I didnt know there were different peppermint shrimp that looked so similar.

No problem!

There are even more similar shrimp but these 2 are the closest looking to L.W I believe.

 

[Ezreal]

Lysmata wurdemanni was originally described from specimens collected at Key West, Floridaand Charleston, South Carolina.[3] Its rangeextends along the Atlantic seaboard of the United States from Long Island to Florida, and along the Gulf of Mexico from Florida to Port Aransas, Texas.[3] It may also occur in the northern Caribbean Sea, but this has not been confirmed.[3] (Source Wikipedia Lysmata Wurdemanni)

So L.W seems to be collected from many areas where L.B is primarily collected from FL.

"exploitation of these shrimps is greatest in south Florida (Rhyne et al., 2009; Baeza et al., 2014; Prakash et al., 2017). Indeed, an estimated 2.3 million individuals harvested from Florida entered the aquarium trade during 2016 (FWCC data, available at https://publictemp.myfwc.com/FWRI/PFDM/, Fig. 1)."

(Source https://peerj.com/articles/3786/)

This may also be important due to Florida having rather invert rich reefs for the L.Bogessi to snack on instead of tasty corals. The amount of inverts in our reefs is insane. I've seen GIANT bristle worms here too.

 

[Ezreal]

Just got my new pepper. Looks like L.Bogessi but could also be L.Rafa

Let's hope..

 

[Fourstars]

I didn't realize this was debated. I have three tanks with a total of eight peppers. No issues.

 

[Ezreal]

I didn't realize this was debated. I have three tanks with a total of eight peppers. No issues.

It has been a debate for many years now. Can you post pictures of your peppers? Perhaps it will shine on light on my L.B VS L.W theory.

 

[vetteguy53081]

They to me are problem child(s) and go after everything BUT aptasia

 

[Dragonreef202]

I have 2 peppermint shrimps and they have seem to have gotten rid of my aptasia. I do have a camel shrimp but put him in my sump because of peole saying he'lll eat my corals

 

[BestMomEver]

Dang... all these stories are rough. I've had too many peppermints to could and they have only done what i wanted. knock out a couple small aptasia here and there and then just go away. Whether because of the large coral banded shrimp in the tank or one of the many fish has a liking for peppermints, or for all i know there are still a few in there... i dont know but i have never seen any peppermint mess with corals. Lots of zoas, and softies and sps in the tank and not a scratch.

Same for me. Mine ate the Ap. After a while, I lost it.

 

[sbash]

I have had, literally, dozens of peppermints and have not had any issues. I have at least five or six alive right now in three different tanks all tanks have zoas, two of the three have an assortment of LPS.

Based on the chart above (I have used it in the past), I have never seen A or F, as far as I can recall.

That said, I will be catching them all soon, so I will be sure to cross reference them to see which varieties I have.

One time, I bought 10 at once, and put several into a breeder box to clean up frags. There were three different varieties in the mix, they didn't all eat the aptasia off the frags either. I don't recall specifics, so that is purely anecdotal.

Another observation I have made and leverage is their roaming territory. It seems they don't travel far to eat aptasia, so I put a couple into a breeding box with a couple contaminated (i.e. aptasia) frags or small rocks and they clean it up. But if I put the same couple in the tank to have at it, they barely do anything.

 

[muzikalmatt]

Definitely not reef safe in my case. A peppermint shrimp was one of my first purchases along with two clown fish. I bought him because I found a couple of aiptasia on my live rock during the cycle process and wanted to go the more natural route in dealing with them. He definitely ate the aiptasia and was one of my favorite tank inhabitants for the first few months. Lots of character and was out and about more than I expected.

However, he went after my first hammer coral a few days after putting it in the tank. (I caught him eating it at night after lights out.) At first I thought it was my fault because I was underfeeding so I went out of my way to spot feed him plenty the next few days, but a few days after that he had finished the hammer coral off completely so I caught him and moved him to my fresh QT/hospital tank. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with him yet because as soon as I need to actually QT and treat a fish, I'll need to move him. I doubt anyone wants a shrimp with an appetite for euphyllia, but I don't want to kill him.

 

[homer1475]

Got 3 from @reefcleaners, never touched the aptaisa in my tank, but did eat the mouth out of my scoly, and killed it! If I ever see those little you know whats, I'll skewer them the first chance I get.

The scoly they ate I got as a rescue for a song and 20$. It recovered and grew to be beautiful. I was so mad when I discovered it the next morning. I know it was them because nothing new was added that hasn't been in there since I got the scoly, except them.

 

[TheAngrySeahorse]

Put one in my tank years ago when I was running a 12g nano...came back five minutes later to watch him pulling the tentacles off my plate coral...can’t remember how I got it out...may have been the screwer treatment mentioned above...kind of like a crab...can’t be trusted...

 

[Ezreal]

Put one in my tank years ago when I was running a 12g nano...came back five minutes later to watch him pulling the tentacles off my plate coral...can’t remember how I got it out...may have been the screwer treatment mentioned above...kind of like a crab...can’t be trusted...

I trust emerald crabs implicitly.

 

[muzikalmatt]

I trust emerald crabs implicitly.

It's funny you say that. After my experience with the peppermint shrimp I was pretty worried about my other inverts snacking on my corals. Recently I caught my emerald on the base of my frogspawn. At first I thought he was eating it, but upon closer inspection I realized he was gently moving the tentacles out of his way to snack on the algae on the base. Definitely a fan of that little guy.

 

[Ezreal]

It's funny you say that. After my experience with the peppermint shrimp I was pretty worried about my other inverts snacking on my corals. Recently I caught my emerald on the base of my frogspawn. At first I thought he was eating it, but upon closer inspection I realized he was gently moving the tentacles out of his way to snack on the algae on the base. Definitely a fan of that little guy.

I think some of these horror stories are due to shrimps and crabs picking at algae or dying corals or simply stealing food from the mouths of corals. That being said I think some peppers will eat coral if they are fed or not.

But you can always trust an emerald crab. Those big claws might be scary looking but they are just for scraping rocks. I have NEVER had an issue with emerald crabs. Hermits on the other hand.... blue legs do me alright for the most part but... keep one eye open.

I religated my blue leg to the refugium at the moment to deal with cyano but also because I suspect he tore the valve of one of my new clams and killed it. He also killed 8 other clams too.

 

[Tyler Bullock]

I had a peppermint that ate my Purple Stylo Frag. Was quite upset. It has almost fully grown back. Took that little dude out of the tank real fast.

 

[muzikalmatt]

I think some of these horror stories are due to shrimps and crabs picking at algae or dying corals or simply stealing food from the mouths of corals. That being said I think some peppers will eat coral if they are fed or not.

But you can always trust an emerald crab. Those big claws might be scary looking but they are just for scraping rocks. I have NEVER had an issue with emerald crabs. Hermits on the other hand.... blue legs do me alright for the most part but... keep one eye open.

I religated my blue leg to the refugium at the moment to deal with cyano but also because I suspect he tore the valve of one of my new clams and killed it. He also killed 8 other clams too.

It seems I have another euphyllia eater in my tank. Something has completely eaten my frogspawn but I haven't been able to catch it in the act. As I mentioned in a previous post, I saw the emerald crab grazing on its base but I'm pretty sure he's not the culprit. I have two clownfish, a yellow watchman goby, a pistol shrimp, skunk cleaner shrimp, emerald crab, sally light foot crab and a pom pom crab. I suspect it might be the sally light foot crab, but I can't be sure. Anyone have any experience with any of these guys eating corals? I guess I'm just not meant to have euphyillias.

 

[AZG]

It seems I have another euphyllia eater in my tank. Something has completely eaten my frogspawn but I haven't been able to catch it in the act. As I mentioned in a previous post, I saw the emerald crab grazing on its base but I'm pretty sure he's not the culprit. I have two clownfish, a yellow watchman goby, a pistol shrimp, skunk cleaner shrimp, emerald crab, sally light foot crab and a pom pom crab. I suspect it might be the sally light foot crab, but I can't be sure. Anyone have any experience with any of these guys eating corals? I guess I'm just not meant to have euphyillias.

I caught my emerald in the act of taking out my golden torch. He’s living in sump city now.