Predatory Peppermint

[kimmeewoo]

I thought that peppermint shrimp were supposed to be peaceful community members, but mine is a predatory killer! So far it has killed my favorite small egg-laying snail, and now it's trying to rip my feather duster to pieces! Ugh! He's getting a free ride to the LFS, Do not pass Go, Do not collect $200! Was I wrong in my belief in the peacefulness of this species? In Bob Fenner's book, he makes no reference to this sort of behavior.

Has anyone else had an experience like this?

[Pikaboo]

Are you sure that you got the Peppermint shrimp and not the Camel Back? These are often mistakenly labeled by the LFS.

[FishDaddy]

This behaviour does sound more like the Rhynchocinetes uritai, sometimes sold as a Peppermint but more commonly called a Camel or Camelback:
http://actwin.com/fish/marine-pics/R...tes_uritai.jpg
Lysmata wurdemanni are the "normal" Peppermints that are generally benign but may eat polyps as well as Aiptasia.
http://www.wyx.com/iheo/tank/aiptasi...demanni%20.jpg
Definitely take it back. If it's a R. uritai, they are destructive; if it's a L. wurdemanni, then you have a rogue! http://www.thereeftank.com/ubb/eek.gif
Dick http://www.thereeftank.com/ubb/smile.gif

That behavior definatly sounds like a camel shrimp, I have seen brief glimpses of the 3 peppermints I added last week, but the baby aptasia seem to be dwindling http://www.thereeftank.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

------------------
I thought I was me, but we were wrong
email: geeflipr@internetcds.com

[inlandreef]

That's horrible!! They should not be doing that, unless you have a rogue or have never fed it or something. I'm guessing that it's a camel, because they are nasty little um, things. But if it's doing stuff like that, I'd dump it at my local reef store. Get rid of it, PLEAsE!!!!

[kimmeewoo]

Crazy as it sounds, I'm positive that it's a peppermint. Since this is my second "rogue" creature (I also have a royal gramma that picked on my blue damsel until the damsel misteriously disappeared forever) I wonder if it's something I'm causing. Maybe I'm underfeeding? How would I know? I feed once a day, twice on Fridays, and not at all on the weekends, since my tank is at work. Should I feed them twice every day?

Regarding my shrimp, I don't need to feed it separately from the rest of my fish, do I? I thought they were just scavengers. If you tell me I'm supposed to be target feeding it, I'm going to feel REALLY stupid. He gets pretty excited when I feed the tank, but it's not very often that he is actually able to grab something out of the water column. Doesn't he just eventually find whatever makes it to the reef floor?

Kimber if you feed the tank pretty sparingly to maintain good water quality it may not be getting enough to satisfy it. You might try figuring a way to slip it an extra little morsel and see if that helps. It could be too that you have one that falls outside the typical behaviour patterns for the species. Is it an only shrimp, they seem to be more social and less secretive in groups of 3 or more.

------------------
I thought I was me, but we were wrong
email: geeflipr@internetcds.com

[Alice]

An "only shrimp"! LOL, for some reason that really cracked me up, Doug http://www.thereeftank.com/ubb/wink.gif

Kimber, I feed my tank at work twice a day. I've got a lot of sandbed critters, especially bristle worms, and they make short work of any food that makes it to the floor of the tank.

From the behavior though, I'd bet you've just got a rogue of a shrimp, but you might try feeding a little more. I told you about the cleaner shrimp that would "clean" the feather duster for extra bits of food but he never did shred it.

~Alice

------------------
Reefkeeping is my life; I can't afford a hobby too!

[ScoobityDoobity]

Oh great I ordered one of the camel shrimp!! Geeezzz it sounds like something that will have to go to the sump! Is that the best place for him?

[oregon_gorge]

We got a camelback shrimp in our batch of pepps. It went to the sump and has been there since Julyand seems to be doing fine. He is in there with a Sally Lightfoot, 2 Green Chromis, and about 10 misc. snails that have made the ride to the basement sump.

Goos luck!

Chris and Pam

[tdwyatt]

Originally posted by kimmeewoo
Crazy as it sounds, I'm positive that it's a peppermint.

A good photograph of your shrimp would be worth the proverbial 1000 words... Very unusual behavior for Lysmata wurdermanii, as they really do not have the equipment to do this type of behavior...

[scotty]

I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure there are other peppermint impostors other than the camel shrimp. I had bought some "peppermints" to control my aiptasia problem but the shrimp never looked at the aiptasia, only at my disc coral and feather duster worms. I compared that shrimp to my other working peppermints and it was slightly different. It wasn't nearly as striking in its differences as a camel back. Anyway, I gave mine back to my LFS and told them they weren't peppermints. They didn't believe me so I dared the woman (a good friend) to throw them into her display tank. Oddly, she didn't trust that they weren't pepps enough to throw them in...

[ScoobityDoobity]

I'm going to have to try that one Scotty!!!!! Thats a great way to get'em to take anything back! "If you don't trust your own products AS listed in the store, you use it in your own home, and tell me of the results!!" HAHAAHAA

[Stang69]

One difference I have noticed between the peps and a camelback are the peps do a side to side shimmy like dance.


HTH Jeff

[foobuddha]

I too had what I thought was a peppermint shrimp that tore apart bigger feather dusters (+1.5" dia crown). I never had aiptasia in that tank, so I can't say if they would have been eating them or not. However after some research, I found that their sometimes a close cousin - Lysmata Rathbunae? -is sold as the peppermint shrimp, they definitely are not aiptasia eaters.

http://www.reefs.org/library/article..._redfield.html