Feather duster

[JLH-l3ioCub3]

Added a feather duster to my reef yesterday and immediately my peppermint shrimp went to ripping and tearing at it all day and night. I've never heard of this but I've had a problem with him eating star fish as well. Now that he's finished off the aptasia, I believe his time on my reef has expired. My advice to anyone trying to use them to rid aptasia is to keep other inverts out of his way. My question I guess is has anyone ever had these issues before and what are the effects of a possible dead feather duster in my tank. About 1 inch of it's tail is eaten off and 1 small spot of it's mid section has been chewed on. Could it live through this? It hasn't opened up since about 9:00 last night.

[Greenturtle]

I have 3 peppermint shrimp and they have not even gone NEAR the feather duster. That is really weird.

[JLH-l3ioCub3]

Yea this guy must be really aggressive. He like eating the tiny little "feet" on the bottom of the starfish I had too. He took care of all my aptasia pretty quickly too.

[Jlsardina]

I have two peppermint shrimp in my tank. They got rid of all the aptasia in a few days, but have not bothered anything else, especially my Hawaiian feather duster. About 2-3 times a week I spot feed them though with a syringe and tubing. Im no expert by any means, but have read that if you keep animals like this fed, they will leave other things alone. So if you don't really have a big source of food for them, maybe try feeding them! I used chopped up brine shrimp and mix it with the saltwater and then suck it right up tue tubing. It's actually fun to watch em feed too because they will hold on to the tubing and actually pull the food out of it. I do the same for my emerald crab once or twice a week as well after he cleaned up my green algae, but let him be when there is some present in the tank so he gets full off of that. Hope this helps!

[Greenturtle]

Originally Posted by JLH-l3ioCub3

Yea this guy must be really aggressive. He like eating the tiny little "feet" on the bottom of the starfish I had too. He took care of all my aptasia pretty quickly too.

He ate starfish tubefeet?!? Dang! Mine barely pick at aiptasia, and almost never come out (it may have to do with the hawkfish though)

[JLH-l3ioCub3]

Yep! I had to get rid of the star and now I'm seeing this going on and I've had it with him. I buried every part of the feather duster in the sand about an inch deep except the head and the **** shrimp dug the tail out and was ripping of pieces of it! Im baffled too! What a little bastard.

[Ausfish]

Bit of garlic and salt, should make a good meal!

[JLH-l3ioCub3]

Thanks jlsardina. I actually use to feed it like that but I stopped because I was hoping it would eat up some algae and excess pieces of food that made it past the fish. I only have a 29 gal. tank and only got the peppermint to get rid of the aptasia. I think that now that he's done his job it's time to replace him with something else more beneficial for the tank.

[JLH-l3ioCub3]

Originally Posted by Ausfish

Bit of garlic and salt, should make a good meal!

Lol! yea and a little tartar would be great too!

[JLH-l3ioCub3]

Or cocktail sauce.... Even better! Any out there have any good peppermint shrimp recipes?

[JLH-l3ioCub3]

Oh nice! Just looked again and now the blue leg hermits are going to town on him! This is great!

[Jlsardina]

Is it dead???? I wonder why there is such an interest in him?

[JLH-l3ioCub3]

Originally Posted by Jlsardina

Is it dead???? I wonder why there is such an interest in him?

I think that once the peppermint shrimp started on him, the exposed flesh became an interest for the hermits

[JLH-l3ioCub3]

Don't know if it's dead or not. I put it in a container with an airstone. Well see what happens......

[joy13]

Peppermint shrimp are known to attach tube worms. If you are wanting to get rid of him find someone with a fuge I know mine is full of aptasia. I have a peppermint in the display tank and he doesn't bother anything but I did have one in another tank that went after my feather duster. It all depends on the shrimp if it will eat aptiasia or feather dusters.

[JLH-l3ioCub3]

Originally Posted by joy13

Peppermint shrimp are known to attach tube worms. If you are wanting to get rid of him find someone with a fuge I know mine is full of aptasia. I have a peppermint in the display tank and he doesn't bother anything but I did have one in another tank that went after my feather duster. It all depends on the shrimp if it will eat aptiasia or feather dusters.

Sorry it took so long to get back.. After putting the feather duster in a container with a bubbler it came back to life in a few hours. I placed it back in the tank for the night but placed it in the rockwork. I woke up in the morning to find it there was Just a small piece of it left in the sand and the hermits were finishing it off. The next morning I found the peppermint dead... I have no idea how this would have happened but I'm not terribly concerned either. Guess karma caught up with him!