Port A Peppermints eat LPS

[justahobby]

I obtained, through MAAST, 5 peppermint shrimp collected from Port A a month ago. Last night I notice 2 of them picking at my acans. I figured they were cleaning up poop since I hadn't fed the acans in a couple days. Woke up this morning to discover every single head had been eaten from the inside out !! I was thrilled that they had cleaned up all signs of aptasia, but this was not cool! Huge party foul! Has anyone had this problem? I am banning them to my fuge, if anyone would like to come pick them up and acknowledges the risk that comes with owning them.

Only thing keeping my sanity at this point is the Rosy scale wrasse aka red velvet wrasse I bought yesterday for a sweeeeet price. What a beauty! Ideas for a name?

[justahobby]

I'm dumbfounded now. I just put 2 more pepps in the fuge. That made 4 out of 5. I just glanced over at my tank and saw three scurrying around in the display. What is going on here. I've got a directional u-tube on the return line (if they were to somehow survive the trip through the pump) which leaves the overflow line left. I cannot, for the life of me, imagine them crawling back up overflow tubing, into the box, uphill again with less water to swim in. THEN going the wrong way thru the u-tube and back into the display. Second thought is they had babies that grew instantaneously which is just as crazy as the first idea, especially since I am still only counting 5 peppermints in the sump.

[Squiers007]

That is strange, I have had several from Port A in my tanks and never had one pick on any of my corals. They will occasionaly steal food from my brains and plate, but they never pick at the tissue itself. Sounds like you got a rouge bunch of pepps! Good luck.

[hobogato]

it is possible that you already had some that came in as hitch hikers in your live rock.

[snfkotara]

Ive never had them eat my coral but with all the wrasses and the beta they do tend to last that long maybe thats why.

[Still Learning]

I had peppermints eat over 30 heads of acans before I could remove them all!!! They definately eat acans!!!

[JoshOdphi]

weird...i've had a peppermint shrimp in my 37 reef...with some acans and it has never touched them....not neva...has stolen food from them...but knock on wood...has never hurt them...

[glennr1978]

Peppermints ate my acans too.

[JimD]

Make sure the shrimp that are munching your acans are not the yet unidentified shrimp from Port A.. Lystmata Wurdemanni, the typical pepps you see in stores are not the same as these shrimp and their behavior has yet to be determined...

[justahobby]

I did think of that JimD, Thank you. The ones you wrote about appear to have tiger stripes on the back and elongated white legs similar to a CB shrimp. Mine have all the distinct markings of a peppermint.

I did count the shrimp again and still have five in the sump. They haven't made it back to the display. Still weirded out by the whole thing. Maybe lack of sleep and cramming for tests have finally caught up to me