How many peppermint shrimp?

[tebstan]

I’ve been feeding anti bacterial and anti parasite pellets to my catch from the coast. Now, I’ve got to decide how many of the peppermints to put in the display.

I’ve got a 90g display with sump and fuge, and I kind of feed a lot. There’s a lot of rockwork to hide in, but no nuisance algae to graze on. A few aiptasia pop up once in a while, but they’re not a problem.

I want enough shrimp in there to be of use as a scavenger and enjoy watching their antics, but I don’t need an army of them to control a problem.

I’ve already got a skunk cleaner, fire shrimp, and coral banded shrimp. And a pistol. (I like shrimp.) I’m thinking of adding 8 or 10 peppermints, hoping not too many get eaten by the angel.

What do you think, too many?

[Mike]

The coral banded might attack them also. Remember they might not be too reef safe, as peppermints have been reported to snack on corals (acans and such). Depending on how big, 8-10 might be a lot. JMO though.

[tebstan]

They are kind of small. That's why I'm concerned some won't make it. Between the pistol, coral banded, and angel, most of them are bite size. :( I'm prepared for the risk with lps. They won't feel starved in my tank, so I'm hoping corals won't be as tasty as the tons of other stuff I drop in there.

Maybe just 6 of the bigger ones, then do a head count after a night to see how many survived? I feel like I'm tossing them to their deaths

[justahobby]

My experience: 5 peps in a 58. Even while they were mowing through aiptasia they made spot feeding coral impossible. After a week or so they moved on to acans. I wouldnt expect to keep them long term. They are too food aggressive.

[tebstan]

they made spot feeding coral impossible.

My cleaner is the same way. Shrimps are pigs. I don't bother to spot feed the corals until I've spot fed the shrimp first. Even the shy fire comes out for me now

[justahobby]

I tried to feed them first. Unless I had a big chunk of clam it didnt matter. They ate faster than eat coral. I hope your experience will differ but I did warn you :-)

[Troy Valentine]

A few years ago I had a sizable aiptasia outbreak from a piece of live rock I put in my fuge. I added 3 peppermints to my 240, and within 6-8 months all traces of aitasia where gone. I never saw them actively eating, but I would notice missing tenticles from the larger colonies. I didn't want to add too many, like others have said they will steal food from corals, I figured add less, wait longer. Seems to be less dangerous to me, just in case they develop a taste for corals. I had plenty of aiptasia food to go around.

[tebstan]

Only 3 in that big tank? Dang. Did you at least get to see them moving about in the day time?

I know they can be in groups, and I never had luck with them when I bought 1 or 2 at the LFS. I hoped a larger group of them would make them more likely to be visible. (Safety in numbers?) I hated to spend $6 a pop for a snack or something that just disappeared into the deep unknown.

I know the risk of adding them. I like shrimp, I want to try it. I don't want so few that I never see them, but not so many that they're a nuisance.

[danvan75]

I added 10 small peps in my 55, to help get rid of aiptasia. They did the job, but I never saw them during the day, just at night. and they haven't touched any of my corals.

[tebstan]

Out of curiosity...

Where did your shrimp come from? The coast or LFS?

There's a few different species of peppermints, they're hard to tell apart. Ones at the LFS will vary with distributor and time of year.

The species found at our coast is supposed to be "more reef safe" than some other varieties.

This is just what I've read, and it's all supposition from hobbyists, no scientific proof.