peppermint shrimp and other inverts.

Max

Max

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Jan 26, 2004
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Hey guys I've noticed that my peppermint shrimp are very active scavengers. They'll take food directly from the tentacles from my anemone and off of the majority of my other sessile inverts. I was just wondering if anyone has had any experience with them passing from general clean up duty to active predation? One of mine seems to pay an undue amount of attention to a couple of my rock anemones and one of them was mysteriously injured the other day. I've had it for a long time and my water conditions are great nitrate less than 10 ppm. Looks almost like something ate a hole in it's side I was just wondering if they could be the culprit. Another thread gave me the idea and I didn't want to hijack it.
thank you
Chris
 
I have seen them eat nassarius snails and sandbed clams.

I have seen them steal food from a condy anemone and stony corals.

There are reports of them ripping into anemones to get food.

They are known to be cannibals, eating their friends when they molt.

Ultimately, all three of mine disappeared after a few years, and the terebellid worm population has gone way up.

I don't think I'll be adding them again.
 
I had two pepermints, for the first month my tank was set up.... later when i put my anemone in the tank and they went right after it and were pinching the tenticles. They MAY have been trying to clean it but it was damaging the anemone so i took the shrimp out back to the store.
 
on the positive side

All the Aipstasia that came in on a piece of LR are gone after 2 weeks! There we're some LARGE ones too! :D

terebellid

What's a terebellid worm good for? What is it?

I've noticed my peppermint shrimp stealing from rock anemone's, and wondered why a mushroom anemone would have strange shapes in the mornings after feeding. I think the peppermint tears it open to steal it's food.
 
Terebellids are also known as spaghetti worms. They have a crown of skinny little threads, which they send out to collect bits of food. Good scavengers, and part of a healthy tank.

Here's a piture.
terrebellid%20burrow.jpg


If you want to know more, have a look at this article:http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-06/rs/index.htm
 
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