Do Peppermint Shrimp Eat Corals?

[tlkng1]

Evening...

I went to another LFS today, well, not so local..it was 40 miles away and making good on the trip, picked up a Hammer Coral frag. I have it in the perfect spot, away from any other corals so even the sweeper tentacles can't reach anything sensitive. (Had to do some re-aquascaping).

I have two peppermint shrimp in the tank and one of them has taken a liking, maybe too much of a liking, to the Hammer. The shrimp keeps picking at it which is keeping the Hammer effectively closed up tight.

I did a feed on the tank to see if that was the shrimp's problem and it left the coral alone for maybe an hour afterwards but is back to picking at it.

Any experience out there with this?

Thanks

 

[Edro]

Interesting, my two peppers ate all five heads on my $50 frogspawn over a three week period. Most expensive meal I've paid for in a long time!

 

[joy13]

Some peppermints shrimp do like things like yellow polyps, LPS and about any other type of coral. I have been lucky all mine want is aiptasia and fish food their favorite is a small piece of silverside which I give them before I feed the tank. By feed the tank I mean put enough food in and turn off the pumps so the corals can catch food and eat.

 

[Greenturtle]

I have 3 peppermint shrimp and all they do is steal food when my ricordea mushrooms catch some from the water column. But mine do not really hurt anything.

 

[Bige]

I had one that ate coral. They are hard to remove too. The ocean is the gift that keeps on giving.

 

[tlkng1]

It is only one of them that was chewing on the Hammer. I took a chance and put a veggie clip in with a good size chunk of that dried algae that comes in sheets. The one that was chewing on the coral went right to the clip and started chowing down. A check this morning before the tank lights came on showed the Hammer was starting to come out and checks throughout the day show the shrimp hasn't been bothering it. The coral hasn't completely come out as yet but I can tell it is thinking about it..one or two tentacles? are out completely.

There are three tentacles that the shrimp must have gotten as they don't have the "hammer" on top anymore but the stalk is there.

 

[Hinds04]

I’m no marine biologist but it sounds like no need to remove the shrimp...

 

[Ausfish]

Mine do it the other way around, I have a mushroom that ate my peppermint shrimp