peppermint shrimp

[PufferGuy]

peppermint shrimps are supposed to be reef safe but mine looks like its picking on the polyps i just got today. After the lights went out, i saw him come out and start picking at them... anyone ever see this happen to them? Maybe they were eating some detrius from the polyps but i wanted to double check...

 

[messiah023]

Puffer,

It's normal. Most shrimp, peppermint included, will pick on the bacteria and "junk" on rocks, corals, polyps, sand, etc...

Nothing to worry about.

Good luck with it!

 

[Smitty]

They are reef safe...they are cleaner shrimps, so it was probably cleaning, or better yet, eating a aiptsia anem that you couldn't see.

 

[cthegame]

+1 Messiah & Smitty

 

[reeffreak]

They are known to eat polyps that resemble aiptasias.For example,yellow polyps.I've lost a large colony of yellow polyps years ago from this.If this is happening to you,remove the polyps asap.

 

[Alexander]

a lot of times they will steal food out of them too. not sure if that was the situation

 

[PufferGuy]

they dont look like aiptasia, and they shouldnt really have any food in them since i just put them in today... they did have all kinds of junk on them though so hopefully thats what they were after, i really like these polyps, dont really know what they are but they are pink on the inside, and are really small like the size of a pencil eraser

 

[bobby]

There is also a shrimp called camel shrimp that is often sold as peppermint. This camel shrimp is not reefsafe, but peps are.

Check these links out to see which one you have for sure. Hopefully the good one.
http://liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=497+525+690&pcatid=690
http://liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=497+525+701&pcatid=701

 

[PufferGuy]

im pretty sure its a peppermint... it has no traces of white on it

 

[bobby]

Well like everyone said then probably just cleaning.

 

[yote]

I'll bet they was just cleaning mucus off the polyps.