Killer peppermint shrimp???

[saltwaternewbie12]

Just looked over at my tank and noticed my frogspawn was 100% closed up. It never does that- not even at night.... so I walk over and see a peppermint shrimp just picking away at it!!! Is it trying to eat the frogspawn? Also it is 100% a peppermint.... it is not a camelback. I chased it away and the frogspawn is now about half open again, so I know the coral is still alive. I just don't want it to become shrimp dinner again later...

 

[cgthebeast]

Sometimes they are known to attack coral, it's why I've never got one

 

[saltwaternewbie12]

I think I'll dig him out as soon as I can catch him

 

[saltwaternewbie12]

Urggg.... now that the shrimp has left alone the frogspawn for a bit, it is back to looking great..... but my anthelia has literally melted for no reason....

 

[Sniperhank]

There is always a reason. Melting usually comes from fluctuating alkalinity, which can also be influenced by pH. Make sure you have a ripple like effect at the top of your tank. In the end, it just sounds like your peppermint is trying to clean up dead material.

 

[54seaweed]

If your corals are receding there is defiantly a imbalance , when corals are acting strange they are telling you something , once you start to see corals literally melting away it's time to start testing , the biggest culprit of melting coral is a alk/calcium imbalance a lot of times this can be corrected with a big water change with RO/DI water,
I also encountered this very issue not to long ago ,
as for the shrimp eating the coral it wouldn't be eating it if it wasn't dying , I have many shrimp they pick at corals all the time but there not eating the coral but all the crud in on and around it ,
You can't always point a finger because they do what they do cleaning up.

 

[saltwaternewbie12]

So apparently it didn't melt.... today my frogspawn is bigger than I've ever seen it, and the anthelia is doing fine.... don't know what happened, but I guess it fixed itself.... did a water change today though for good measure