Peppermint shrimp?

I got what appeared to be a peppermint shrimp a nearby LFS the other day. To me, the difference between a peppermint and camel shrimp is quite obvious (or at least I believe it to be). The camel shrimp's stripes are much whiter and pronounced. My peppermint shrimp has been in hiding ever since I've gotten him. He comes out every once in a while when I'm feeding and sometimes I see him at night. Today I was sitting next to my tank and he popped his head out over a rock with a mushroom colony on it. He then proceded to pick at one of the mushrooms on the top of the rock! The mushroom began to close up but after a few seconds, the shrimp went back into hiding and the mushroom expanded to its normal size. I'm starting to wonder if it actually is a camel shrimp... it looks like a peppermint and when I go to the stores, I can usually tell the difference between the two but after watching it pick at my coral like that, I'm starting to wonder. I may have also not understood what was happening... what may have looked like the shrimp "picking" at the coral may have been the shrimp cleaning something off of it. Does anyone have a similar experience? I will try to get a picture but the shrimp is usually gone a few seconds after seeing him.

My first guess is that the shrimp was stealing food from the mushroom.

Does the shrimp actually do damage, or merely irritate the Corallimorph? My Cleaner shrimp that interrogates most of my corals for leftover food with impunity. Very aggressive, and perhaps the ONLY reason that I need to fashion one of those coke bottle feeder domes soon. No damage done, other than that the corals shrink up and the zooxanthellae probably do not collect as much light in that temporary state.

I thought that might be the case but I was slightly afraid that I had bought an imposter! After looking through lots of pictures on the internet though, I was pretty sure he was a peppermint... even though he hasn't eaten any aptasia yet (which is the reason I bought him!) He needs to earn his keep!!! lol.

Thanks for the quick responses. I'll keep an eye on him to make sure he isn't doing any damage.

I bought 2 small Peppermint shrimp a while back for the same reason. They were very reclusive. My Aiptasia dissappeared, but so did both shrimp (within two weeks!). I have a "peaceful" tank, so I am not sure what happened.

They might still be in there! lol. I can't even find my guy and I only have 24 gallons. I only see him randomly. I can get up in the middle of the night and go look at the aquarium and he's still nowhere to be found. The other day I was concerned he had died (since I hadn't seen him since I bought him) so I took a flashlight and began looking behind the rocks... still couldn't find him. Seriously, they are masters of hiding.

There are at least 7 species of "Peppermint Shrimp", possibly more, and it is very common (maybe not the majority, but a significant percentage) of these shrimp will nibble or downright consume corals. Their favorite targets are polyp type corals (mushrooms, zoanthids, etc), but they have been reported to eat just about any coral.

You can try keeping them better fed with frozen food, but then they won't touch your aiptasia much either :roll:

Brian

Lysmata wurdemanni are supposedly more "apt" to eat aiptasia. Although I have never seen them chowing any down, I haven't seen them messing with my corals either. They are nocturnal, so your best bet is to catch around 2am, or 3am, or maybe 4am.

I was having an outbreak of aptasia they were even starting to grow out of my sandbed so I bought 2 peppermint (Lysmata wurdemanni, I had to order them specifically) now After about 10 days I have 1 large aptasia that I can find and when I get home tonight I'll get it myself, I have however noticed that my small white dusters on my live rock are dissappearing, will the peppermint shrimp eat them too?

My peps don't bother the little feather dusters. You usually do have to hit the big aiptasia with Joe's Juice or something and then the peps will take care of the little ones.

Never seen my pep go after feather dusters either. Although if I put my hand in the tank and hold still, it will jump on my fingers and pick at my nails like crazy.