High Tide Aquatics

sexy shrimp eating my corals.

JRocha

JRocha

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I just home and saw my 2 of the sexy shrimp eating corals. one was eating some acans and the other was eating a blaustamosa. I did not know that they eat coral. are they supposed to or are they known for doing this? its in my girlfriends 12 gallon nano and it cant be because the corals are dying cause the coral growth in this tank is amazing.
 
Are they getting enough food? Kind of odd that both of the sexy shrimp you have might be forming the same bad habits.
That and/or you have some mighty delectable and irresistible acan's and blasto's :)
 
never seen nor heard of it and I've kept hoards of them in numerous tanks.
 
well according to this website they say that they can harm LPS.
www.reefpedia.com/index.php/Sexy_Shrimp
I did not see them do this till just today. one ate a big head polyp off the blasto. the other was eating multiple heads off the acan. they get fed all the time with the other fish and corals everyday and every night. those bastards. the acan is one thing but the blasto cost double what the acan cost. either way they are eating them now. I will take a pic of them in the act if I can. we moved the pieces in a higher current area where the shrimp can't seem to get to. Now we have to tear apart the tank to get all 3 out. great.
 
I haven't had sexy shrimp, but other shrimp which would start picking at my lps. I've lost some nice acans as a result. If you see them eating your corals, you'll have to decide which is more important to have... the corals or the shrimp. I like the shrimp, but I chose the corals.
 
well considering that her tank is all lps the shrimp have to go. no brainer for us. shrimps cost 8 a piece where as corals cost.......well you know what corals can cost. what shrimps are you talking about?
 
Hmm....I'm with Gresham here. I've kept numerous (not as many as him probably) with LPS of all sorts and never ran into a problem. However, each individual specimen is unique....sooo......good luck getting them out. Maybe a trap of some sort could be used? Or just some food resting in/on a net?

If the stores won't take 'em, let me know. I might be interested.
 
well its a 12 gallon nano so I'm pretty sure we can get them out. where are you located at. we are in pacifica. we can work out a trade or something. let me know.
 
Just get a trap and put some nice blasto in there :D ..


JK.. goodluck getting them out man :) .. my cleaner shrimps are stealing food from my coral all the time but I like them too much :D ..
 
thats what we took out originally for the same reason. then replaced the cleaner with the sexy shrimp. at least the cleaner just stole food from the corals and not use them as food. thanks. don't think it will be too hard. the cleaner is happy in my 240.
 
I've seen cleaners attack corals. That one I can confirm. They'll also rip food out of a corals closed stomach causing major harm. NO cleaners for me (not useful anyways) :)
 
JRocha said:
well according to this website they say that they can harm LPS.
www.reefpedia.com/index.php/Sexy_Shrimp
Click to expand...

use that website like you would any other public wiki. take it with a grain, no, cup of salt ;)
 
GreshamH said:
I've seen cleaners attack corals. That one I can confirm. They'll also rip food out of a corals closed stomach causing major harm. NO cleaners for me (not useful anyways) :)
Click to expand...
yeah I know.. that's why I have a stick in hand when I feed the coral :bigsmile: .. I just really like shrimp..
 
GreshamH said:
JRocha said:
well according to this website they say that they can harm LPS.
www.reefpedia.com/index.php/Sexy_Shrimp
Click to expand...

use that website like you would any other public wiki. take it with a grain, no, cup of salt ;)
Click to expand...

yeah I really just go off of my experiences and if its something new then I ask derek at ocean treasures and he is a pretty honest guy. i've been doing reef for over 8 years now and have been through alot. most things I can figure out myself, but I am going a different route with my tank and starting to put SPS in my tank and I never really had any before so derek is a helpful guy as well as some other people I know. but we bought them from another store and they did not warn us. then again you said that they've never done this to you. it's so weird. i caught them in the act and the damage they did in a few hours to the blasto was pretty crazy. here are a before and after pics
before
crab031.jpg


after


aquariumpics160.jpg
 
i have 6 sexys in my tank for about 9 months. never had em eat my corals, however they do irritate them and eat the slime or white strings off the coral. i guess it depends on the sexy. they do need to be fed every so often tho. having them so long you can tell when its time to be fed. i feed mines every 2-3 days. they scavenge off the rocks, sand for food in the mean time. has anybody witnessed them hatching babies? there are eggs weekly but i've never witnessed them hatching..
 
Again, the store had nothing to warn about. I have dealt with thousands of these shrimp while in wholesale. Housed them with corals all day long. What you saw is so not in the norm . In all my reefing, forum surfing (2 hours a day for 10+ years reveals a lot :lol: ) and interactions with reefers across the country no one has ever said they are not reef safe, or that they attack corals. Every single book lists them as reef safe with no warning. The sun does shine of a dogs behind once every so often though :lol:

How long have you had the blasto? If you got it within the lat two months I place bets on the coral receding on it's on and the shrimp are removing necrotic tissue. It may look fine, but blastos are notorious for falling apart in the first few months. Sexy Shrimp will remove necrotic tissue, and parasites as well :)
 
hmm, i dont know. blasto looks pretty healthy to me. half of the one that is eatin is nice a plump.maybe they are just starving and need more food?
 
For the most part my luck with blastos is horrible. Mine look fine for a while then just fall a part in short order. They're like Elegance. They look really healthy until they turn the corner then it's a very rapid decent :(

IN wholesale we stopped getting them in as they ship very poorly and we'd loose on average 50% of all ordered :(
 
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