peppermints safe with bubble tip anemone?

[Ram_Puppy]

hey guys, you think peppermints would be safe with a bubble tip anemone? Just rolling ideas around in my mind... my anemone is hosted by two maroon clowns, and I am feeling that if the peppermint got designs on the anemone, the maroons would beat the holy heck out of him in short order...

thoughts?

[christerrell2k3]

i wouldnt even try it.

[MikeDeL]

I would have to agree. I wouldnt even put one in a reef.... I dont like shrimp, they pick at too much.

[mathias]

Im sorry I have 4 peppermints and one rose tip and no problems... that I know of...

[Instar]

I recued a rose bta from someone who had 4 or 5 peppermints. The rose had a bunch of ripped tentacles and holes when I got it. The scars were obvious to me. He didn't think anything was up and thought all the little scar spots were normal. They will get it at night while the clowns sleep. Mathias is the exception when it comes to this mix and even his can go south real fast without warning and without being noticed until its too late. MikeDel is correct, they even graze digitata in the mid afternoon while you're at work. The digitata is the only thing I have seen grow the polyps right back so its unnoticable.

[Ram_Puppy]

well there you go, bad idea! discussion over! thanks guys.

Larry... I think You convinved me to just let well alone be, when the new setup is ready, I am going to purchase some more berghia (more than 3) and let the little buggers do their work.

[Alamo]

I have 4 peps I only see at night... my niger trigger rules the tank by day... when I flashlight em at night they have never been after my corals (2 bubbles , red brain, hammer and 2 digitata) , but then again, I feed em evey few days some diced VHP cube at night.
They will however try and steal the corals food if i dont tuck it out of site deep into the coral.

[mathias]

why can't mine just eat the aptasia :)

[Polkster13]

I guess mine are the exception to the rule as well. They have never bothered any of my BTA or my corals.

[Instar]

Peppermints are extremely shy and used to life in large rocks with lots of cover such as a weed bed on or in the rocks. They are also most active at night. In a tank with lots of light, only a couple shrimp and young ones at that, they may not exhibit all their true habits for a while. Larger peppermints can be trained to eat aiptasia if they haven't figured it out already. But then, the other things will be in danger too as they become bolder. I hear the same lots of itmes, no problems except that they steal food from the coral and then they are on top of a little yellow cuke. Later the same person will say the cuke dies unexpectedly and wants to know why their BTA dies when it looks like it was splitting. For all the good they do, their lack of real activity, I don't think its worth the risk. (Just me, my opinion) They are not triopical after all, and our reefs are. Pepps come from the coast here and exhibit seasonal habits as well. They do make an excellent source of food for the reef when used in larger groups as they spawn and larger ones have as many as 1200 live babies. For that, a dedicated separate refugium or compartement in the fuge would be great. Large rocks with some open water at the top and long bladed macro, laternating currents with a slack time around 1am will help them spawn more.