?Peppermint shrimp bother GSP coral

[drm]

Happy New Year!
I added a green star polyp coral to my tank yesterday, approximately 5-6 inches in size. I have a few small corals and sponges that came on my live rock more than a year ago... but otherwise this is the first coral I have separately purchased. THE GSP looks great and has fully opened up already. My water parameters, etc are all excellent.
So the question... I was reading on Wet Web Media this morning that someone found their peppermint shrimp picking at their coral, and the response from the person at WWM was that this was not uncommon and the writer would need to remove the peppermint shrimp.
However, as I have looked through the populations of various tanks on this website, I see that many of you do have peppermint shrimp and GPS corals...
So has anybody else heard of this being a problem?
Thanks in advance...

 

[steve-s]

They can be a problem with various corals/animals. More commonly "duster" type corals and zoo's. They are also guilty by association when found near dead/dieing corals. Keep in mind these guys are opportunistic feeders but they should not be immediately blamed unless caught red handed. Even then, look for underlying causes. As for the GPS, it is possible as the polyp size is in their realm of goodies but that said, the circumstances of the tank are an unknown and it's quite possible they where not properly fed. Also be sure the person you read about did not mis ID the shrimp as a camel back which can often be the case.

Cheers
Steve