Peppermint Shrimp eating my Brain???

[Rolo]

Hello everyone! And to the moderator, I never got a welcome fish yet.
I bought two Peppermint Shrimps a couple of weeks ago. Recently my Green Open Brain has be receding in one small area. It wasn't opening up the way it used to, so I fed it some frozen brine shrimp and the next day it was a little bit better. But I noticed that the night of the feeding, one of the shrimps was digging into the mouth of the Brain to get the shrimp (this is at night when the lights were turned out). So I scared the shrimp with my flashlight. Later that night I went down again and I noticed a shrimp looked like it was around the receding area of the Brain. I'm not sure, but it might have been picking at that area. Could it be possible that the shrimps are eating or picking at the Brain's weak areas???
Also, it seems that there are less coppepods or whatever crawling around at night than there used to be. Do the shrimps eat the coppepods, amphipods and bristle worms???
Thanks for any help.

[Aquariust]

Does he look like this:



or this:

[derfnart]

That's a good question aquarist... and nice pictures to demonstrate the difference between the shrimps... And another thing to note, real peppermints have a translucent color, and the other which I assume is a camel shrimp has opaque white color. Or at least that's what I have noticed in the ones I've seen, and that's not always evident in pictures like the one above.

[KenH]

My experience with peppermints, as with many scavengers, is that they are usually guilty of picking at specimens that already have problems, but are not necessarily the cause of the original problem.

Here is a pic of a true Peppermint Shrimp


--- Ken
website: www.ReefCorner.com

[tyoberg]

I caught my peppermint shrimp in the act of eating a large hole in my green open brain. I had been away on a 3 day weekend and when I got back, there he was. The brain was healthy, so this wasn't a situation of scavenging.

Either keep peppermint shrimp well fed, or don't keep them. They're a liability and fall into the category of "typically reef safe."

Ty

[Rolo]

Aquariust, I guess they look a little bit more like the second picture.
KenH, I think that they look a lot like the picture that you have. I think the other one posted by Aquariust looks like what I've seen labelled as Camel Shrimps at my LFS.
Thanks for the pics and information guys. I'll take a closer look to make sure though.
Also, is there any information relating to the other questions that I raised in the original posting?
Would it be better to feed the Brain earlier in the day so that it gets a better chance to digest the brine shrimp before the lights go out and the shrimps try to pick at them???
Thanks again.

[tyoberg]

I now only have 1 cleaner shrimp that tries to get the food intended for the brain coral, so I simply feed them both. Try setting a chunk or 2 around the base of the coral, or use a tupperware or something to cover the brain while it eats.

Ty

[canadawest]

I usually feed my brain about an hour or two before lights out, so that the brain has a chance of ingesting the food before the night creatures come out to raid the seafood.

But there is always a mobile invert trying to steal away food from my corals. My cleaner shrimp are fast little thieves, as are the hermit crabs. The trick is to make sure your mobile inverts get a chunk of food first, then feed the brain and other corals.

[KenH]

I agree that it is important to ensure that all scavengers in a tank get fed on occasion. This goes for any shrimps, crabs, brittlestars, etc. They all have the potential for killing other specimens if they are otherwise starving to death and I am sure there are some plain bad-seeds in the bunch that will exhibit this behavior no matter what.

I have 3 peppermint shrimp that are currently housed in a sump. I occasionally feed them and last night I was working in the sump and was surprised that all 3 immediately mounted my hand and exhibited typical cleaning behavior, probably because they have not been getting fed as regularly as they should.

--- Ken
website: www.ReefCorner.Com