Peppermint shrimp From Hell.....

[arsoncop4fish]

I have six peppermint shrimp in my tank. They have ganged up to form a Hells Angel chapter and are wreaking havock on my live stock... I have seen 2 of them with tire irons and two with chains the others are unarmed or are carrying concealed weapons... In the last two weeks I have placed 4 rock anenomes in my tank... two at a time. the first two were missing and I thought that they went under my substrate, so I took out all of my rock and looked through all of my crushed coral....No anenomes found. I bought two more and placed them strategically in my tank so that i could watch them and low and behold they fell victim to the Shrimp Chapter of the "hells Angels". The peppermint shrimp methodicallytortured and picked them to pieces until they were nothing but a mass of goo. They also attack my brain coral on a regular basis, stealing and pilfering all of the food that I feed it. I feed on a regular basis and they seem happy. Is this a gang realted problem?

Is this normal? I thought the anenomes would be poisonous to other fish? I will not put any more creatures through this form of torture. any feedback would be helpful..... Thank you

 

[Gauge]

1) Anemones are venomous, not poisonous. There's quite a difference.
2) My shrimp seems to be immune to the sting of my bubble anemone as well. I think that the exoskeleton keeps them from being stung.

My skunk cleaner is the terror of my tank as well. I'd get rid of him if I could catch the little ****.

 

[fishfreek]

Interesting your acutally buing Aptasia? the common name rock anemone is a name often used when also refering to aptasia. Its not supprising that your peppermint shrimp are tearing into them as thats one of their natural food items.

"stealing" food from corals is not uncommon for shrimp. Seems like no mater how much you feed them they are always starving.

 

[Peeley]

will these eat any other anemones? do they attack anything that i might want to keep? i have a condylactis

 

[arsoncop4fish]

I had them tearing into my Seabea also...I guess I am going to have to take away thier free time hehehehehhe