E. Quad eating peppermint shrimp?

[eric]

Upon passing yesterday, one of our BTAs was holding onto something fairly large. As I watched it was spitting out a carcass or shell. The best I can tell it was the shell of one of the peppermint shrimp. It looked like a dead fish or shrimp shell - it was white and grey in my opinion, but my wife says she saw some red.

I've seen the shrimp go right up to the anemones and steal food (or make good solid attempts).

The anemone spit it out where I can't get to it easily, so at this point I'm just speculating that the shrimp is what was eaten. I don't usually see the shrimp often unless I'm feeding.

Would this occurance sound reasonable? I don't know what a shrimp would look like after an anemone was done with it. I feed it silversides or frozen shrimp (minus shells).

Would the BTA consume a peppermint and just spit out the shell?

[GaryP]

More likely the shrimp molted and that's what you saw. Usually it works the other way around. The peppermint eats the anemone. If it was eaten by the anemone, it was just luck. I wouldn't recommend a peppermint in a tank with any anemone.

[eric]

I hadn't thought of molting. They've co-habitated for over a year.

I got the peppermints for anemones in the first place - aiptasia that is. And haven't had any of them in a while.