Reef Discussion

[alteclansing]

Hi all,

Im going to catch my 3 pepermint shrimps tonight with a DIY trap (inverse bottle top)...

Those shrimps are picking on my corals, specially the sun coral eating at night. I have plenty of snails to eat uneaten food on the floor.

Will let u all know if I can catch them with the trap tomorrow.

Cheers

Hilary

 

[MagicJ]

dr_schell is the local expert on peppermint shrimps - he might be able to make a comment later as I have not heard of them picking on corals.

 

[alteclansing]

haha I bought my peppermint from him. When i say it pick on coral, what i mean is it just crawl on it making coral's polyp to retract thats all, and of course, stealing food from corals, when it tries to eat.

Everynight I have to use the plastic bottle trick to feed the sun coral.

 

[Dr. Schell]

Yes, it is claimed that Pepermint shrimp are reef safe, but lets use our logic....they feed on aptasia and aptasia is a cnidarian (a phylum that includes all of the corals and anemones) so it stands to reason that they can pick at corals. I have seen them feeding on morphs and zoos, however these cnidarians generally recover quickly. If the corals have food on them, they will pick it off. Are you sure they are EATING the sun coral. If so, is the sun coral healthy, or is it dying. They will often attack dead and dying cnidaians in preference to living/ healthy corals, presumabley this is to avoid the nematocycts that the corals use to defend themselves

 

[alteclansing]

come on guys, i am saying it Disturbs the coral and picks food from it... therefore their polyp retracts... lol