# Help! Peppermint eating my ricordea



## PACMAN (Mar 4, 2010)

What the heck do I do? my peppermint shrimp is eating the ricordea i just got. (meanwhile the assh*le is ignoring my aiptasia (even before I got the ricordea))


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

Could be a Camel shrimp (durban dancing shrimp) and not a peppermint.

Get a pic of the shrimp.


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## PACMAN (Mar 4, 2010)

Sunstar said:


> Could be a Camel shrimp (durban dancing shrimp) and not a peppermint.
> 
> Get a pic of the shrimp.


is this good enough of a pic to ID?


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## Cypher (Apr 15, 2006)

There's another type of shrimp from the pacific which looks almost exactly like the caribbean peppermint shrimps; they tend not to eat aiptasia. You might have accidentally been sold one of these. Where did you buy the shrimp?

Also, I've noticed if the aiptasia is too big, peppermints will ignore it totally. They prefer aiptasia when they're small. So, you'll have to manually kill aiptasia if they're 3/4 - 1 inch in diameter, in terms of the head size.


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## Fish_Man (Apr 9, 2010)

PACMAN said:


> is this good enough of a pic to ID?


Don't look like a peppermint to me 

That is why I opted out on getting one since most places don't sell "true" peppermint so I've researched.


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## PACMAN (Mar 4, 2010)

bought it at big als 'sauga. I guess i should mention that he ate the aiptasia i had the first night i got him, but since then hasnt really ate anything. I got fed up and bought another one recently. But it is the original that i found munching on my rics. I might have to trade/sell him if he dosent behave himself. 

I know its not a camelshrimp though. but another shrimp type? perhaps.


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## Cypher (Apr 15, 2006)

The only places that I trust getting true peppermint shrimps is SEA-U-Marine and Menagerie. Even if you get a true peppermint, like many animals, sometimes their appetite for a certain type of food changes as they age. If it's not the size of the aiptasia, may be its just that particular shrimp's preference.


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

Looks like a peppermint to me!

Let us keep in mind that if a peppermint eats aiptasia, it may also find other "soft" corals yummy.

Your best bet is to just remove him if he has developed a taste for more prized inhabitants.

Sump, trade, sell or return!


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## BBOSS (Jan 30, 2010)

I used to have a pair of pepperments that will try to eat the new corals but they do not bother other corals that were in the aquarium for a while. 

I wonder if it is the different smell on the new coral that attracts the peperments to it?


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## Ciddian (Mar 15, 2006)

My peppermints used to mow through my green stars from time to time.. :/


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## Tigercga (Mar 26, 2006)

My peppermint also finds green star polys tasty after it cleaned aptasia. It also likes xenia.


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## PACMAN (Mar 4, 2010)

Tigercga said:


> My peppermint also finds green star polys tasty after it cleaned aptasia. It also likes xenia.


ahhhhhhhhh I have all of those mentioned corals!!!


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## acer (May 18, 2010)

I think mine went after my torch...  I lost one head... but I can't lay blame to the peppermint cause I didn't see it, but I'm pretty sure it was it.


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## freddymp (Jan 15, 2010)

Yours looks like a peppermint; if i recall correctly the camel one usually have a larger hump on the back. If the aiptasia is much larger than the shrimp, it helps if the aiptasia if weakened (for example, by poking it first using a chopstick), then my peppermint will then go after it. I lost a nice blue sea-squirt to my peppermint...


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