Peppermint shrimp

[shawn114]

I have a 20 gal tank with 2 peppermint and one coral banded shrimp. I have just introduced a 2.5 inch marron clown and within a few day's the top of his back looks like it's getting picked at right down to the dorsal bone and scales picked. I saw one of the peppermint on him one day. I this normal for peppermint's to do this and will it kill the clown? And should I put more fish in the tank to discourage the peppermint from picking on my poor clown?

 

[rexxx]

Is it normal for this to happen? NO the fish must be in a bad way already if hes letting the shrimp do that to him try to isolate the clown in a diffrent tank(Hospital tank) and take care of his wounds with a good diet and proper medication.Pepermint shrimp are scavengers and shouldnt be attacking your fish. The coral banded on the other hand is an oppurtunist

 

[Bojangles]

Are you sure its the peppermints that ate up his dorsal? I've heard some people have problems with banded shrimps picking on and even killing smaller fish.

 

[cdeakle]

Not the peppermint, I once had a coral banded shrimp, KEYWORD: ONCE

 

[Baianotang]

NOT NORMAL.

 

[Anonymous]

My coral banded neveer picks on my fish

 

[jandree22]

i had a really mean pep before that killed all the other shrimp in my tank, 2 other smaller peps and 1 cleaner shrimp. for some reason I have really bad luck with picking the meanest crustaceans....

never had an ill-tempered Cleaner, however, and gettin a new one at some point

 

[Anonymous]

The Lysmata sp. are the most reliable shrimp with fish. However they sometimes pillage corals and anemones for food.

 

[shawn114]

I never saw the coral picking at him, he seems to be beahaving himself. the peps on the otherhand, i have witnessed picking on him. I put them in jail (filter system) so the marroon clown can hopefully rehabilitate. How long will it take for the clown to heal?

 

[qwiksilver]

Problem is while you are sleeping at night the coral comes out to play. I woke up the other night and was walking by my tank when I noticed my coral molesting my suncorals. He was ripping the polyps off and eating them. I tried to feed him a piece of krill, but he lunged around my hand and attacked it again. Nothing like the taste of fresh meat. So, if there is severe damage to your clown I would bet your coral. The peps are just tagging along and happened to be the ones getting caught. Kinda like that cartoon where the dog is left in charge and the cat keeps destroying things and as the dog tries to clean up and save things the owner always walks in and catches him and he gets the blame. Poor wittle dawgy!!

 

[shawn114]

Ever since I have put the pep's in the filter the clown has improved, his scales are coming back and color. Might take a bit longer for the dorsal's to heal.

 

[Anonymous]

I personally do not trust any of the shrimps. They all have little quirks and some will end up damaging fish or inverts.

 

[Anonymous]

Neither species of shrimp prey upon fish, the fish has to be sickly if the CB is eating at the clown...i have a full grown CB shrimp that has never bothered any fish, however i have seen it lunge at fish, only protecting its turf/food...the peps dont have a habit of attacking fish sick or not, they are an unlikely suspect and i find it pure coincidence that the fish is recovering after the peps are removed...

 

[shawn114]

well the coral banded never did bother that clown, i witnessed several occassions where the pep's were on to of the clown picking at him and that's when i noticed that the wounds were getting worse. The clown may not be doing well and that's why he was picked on so bad. But i have to find out why my fish are having a hard time in the tank and the inverts are not. Any ideas why my fish are struggling and the inverts are not. I have a 20 gal tank with about 8lbs of live rock.

 

[Anonymous]

and that would be the reason why the peps are engaging in this activity and perhaps even making the wounds worse but not because theyre predatory though. Some one on here says shrimps are like jackals, i think of them more as coyotes (more or less harmless scavangers) PS adding more LR to your tank would be beneficial in general. How long do you acclimate your fish, that could be a potential problem.. do you quarantine? generally shrimp and crustaceans kick off before fish will if the parameters are outta wack...