Naughty Shrimp

[Jamie]

OK...So I picked up a nice little colony of green pocilipora from Austin Aquafarms a couple of weeks ago and have been very pleased with it. Just today I noticed that it looked a little "beaten up". As I am new to SPS, I wasn't sure if this was a precurser to bleaching...or this tips were burning due to low alk...or something else. So I broke out every test kit I own and started checking everything.

Everything checked out just fine..alk was a little low (8 dKH)...which I was expecting...so I added some B-Ionic to boost it a little. Then I moved the Poci a little lower in the tank with a little less flow to see how it responded.

Well, my lights went out a little bit ago and I saw the culprit...a large peppermint shrimp going to town on it...picking and picking until it was able to rip out a polyp. I watched him do it three times!!! I have no idea what to do now. I'm trying not to get too worked up...but this is a little bit of a bummer. Any thoughts? I hope they don't start messing with all of my corals.

[ErikH]

I have about ten in my tank but have not yet visually witnessed or seen any stress in my corals due to them directly. Keep your eyes on itt, if it gets worse, you have a decision to make!

[aquasport24]

I have about 20 in my with no problem. Are you sure it's not a camel shrimp?, it's looks just like a perppermint.

[Jamie]

Yeah these are peps for sure...gathered locally. They wiped out all aiptasia that hitchhiked on a maricultured coral. Now I guess they're tasting what else is available. Usually, I see/don't worry about shrimp and crabs on the corals...grazing and what-not...but this guy, and I witnessed it repeatedly, was digging in the polyp's hole, rounding it out some, and consuming the polyp. Though the coral is definately stressed right now, I haven't seen any shrimp on it this morning.

[Jamie]

Keep your eyes on itt, if it gets worse, you have a decision to make!

The decision will be easy...corals over shrimp...but how. I will monitor. Maybe they will stop. I may simply need to feed them more.

[aquasport24]

A big lion fish will take care the problem....J/K.

[Jamie]

lol...yeah...but I like my cleaner shrimp too much. Those guys actually love to crwl all over me and would be easy to catch. Maybe I could pull them out, and get a loaner llion....lol. I don't know. I'm just going to wait and see how this develops for a little bit.

[BioCube14]

peppermint shrimp are like emerald crabs they eat anything that is dieing or looks like it is thats why i dont have them anymore