Peppermint shrimp steals food from blasto

[Xj reefing]

Hi guys my new peppermint shrimp that I got a couple of days ago was caught during feeding time stealing food from the mouth of my blastomussa and ripping a bit of its flesh. The tank is a 20 gallon cube and currently has 2 baby clownfish, 1 blue spot blenny, some snails and lots of corals. I would love a sixline wrasse and want to know if it is compatible with the livestock and if I should get it to eat the shrimp instead of having to pull the tank apart to catch it. All help would be appreciated:)

[FollyFish]

Have you tried to spot feed the shrimp? It might be less likely to steal if it gets its own to eat. 

[Xj reefing]

I tried that and it has not bothered anything since. I was trying to spot feed it when it ripped the coral.

[SaltyGallon]

You could try feeding the shrimp pellets before hand but in my experience shrimp are just kind of idiots when it comes to food... My fire shrimp will steal food from my acan every feeding time, without fail. It's a good thing he's nice to look at because he's a real d*ck!

[DISQUALIFIED-QQ]

What kind of food are you using? I feel like if you use a small sized food (and I mean in measured in microns, think powder) for corals it'll reduce the chances of stealing food.

 

...my clownfish still try to slurp food off all my LPS...still...ugh...

[jservedio]

This is simply the way of the shrimp and is just something you have to deal with to keep one - especially peppermints.

 

Keeping it extremely well fed will only do so much - even if it isn't hungry, when you spot feed it still may tear things up a bit until it realizes it has no room left for food.

 

  

1 hour ago, Diamonds x Pearls said:

What kind of food are you using? I feel like if you use a small sized food (and I mean in measured in microns, think powder) for corals it'll reduce the chances of stealing food.

 

...my clownfish still try to slurp food off all my LPS...still...ugh...

Doesn't really matter - shrimps gonna do what shrimps do. They are infinitely worse than clowns when it comes to stealing food. My last peppermint paid the ultimate price for trying to steal from an anemone after it had finished stealing food from everything else in the tank immediately after it had already been over-fed with my fish.

[Xj reefing]

Thanks guys I will do this

[FollyFish]

I currently have a fire, cleaner and pistol and none of them steal food. However if a shrimp drops any food the fish will steal it from them (I havent come up with a way to stop that yet). I spot feed them in the same area every day so that they know where to go and wait when its time to eat. If the fish eat then they get a share. What I do is with a filled turkey baster I hold it in each of the shrimps different feed spot and let them pull the food out until they leave. 

[Xj reefing]

I just noticed that the shrimp molted sometime so is this why it was stealing food then stopped?

[SaltyGallon]

Most likely. They tend to tuck themselves away for a day or two whilst I'm guessing their exoskeleton 'hardens up' 🙂

[DreC80]

On 5/25/2020 at 4:50 AM, Xj reefing said:

Hi guys my new peppermint shrimp that I got a couple of days ago was caught during feeding time stealing food from the mouth of my blastomussa and ripping a bit of its flesh. The tank is a 20 gallon cube and currently has 2 baby clownfish, 1 blue spot blenny, some snails and lots of corals. I would love a sixline wrasse and want to know if it is compatible with the livestock and if I should get it to eat the shrimp instead of having to pull the tank apart to catch it. All help would be appreciated:)

Shrimp is just doing what any shrimp would do.  They're scavengers lol.  I don't recommend putting a six line wrasse in that tank.  They generally tend to be bullies in smaller tanks and you may have to take your tank apart to get the wrasse out.

 

As others have stated, make sure the shrimp is well fed, but another option is to create a feeding tool.  Get a soda bottle and cut it in half or smaller so that you only keep the top portion.  Cover the blasto with it and feed from the hole in the soda bottle.

 

Like this:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/soda-bottle-top-great-for-spot-feeding.101596/

 

Or buy something like this:

 

[Xj reefing]

Ok thanks guys for the help I will keep watching the shrimp 😉

[lovely_trequartista]

On 5/29/2020 at 2:42 PM, Xj reefing said:

Ok thanks guys for the help I will keep watching the shrimp 😉

 

I seriously suggest just whacking your shrimp over the head with a stick (coral feeder) when you see the undesired behavior.  My Red Fire Shrimp is a greedy little shit. 

 

Just goes into a frenzy at the first hint of food.  Beautiful to look at, but he'll just go from Acan to Acan, Blasto to Blasto, assaulting each coral for the mysis I just fed if I allow him to.

 

I literally don't allow him to leave his cave for the 10-15 minutes it takes to feed, or for the next 10 minutes after.  Now mine just knows the deal. 

 

He's normally not shy at all but if I merely approach him with the coral feeder during feeding he flees to his cave. He'll stay at the entrance with his head and antennae poking out he'll try and sneakily inch his way out the cave when I'm on the other side of the tank, but I just have to approach him and he retreats again. 

 

I don't worry about hurting the shrimp, he's too fast for me to actually make contact with the stick and he's basically trained now anyway. Just slowly moving the coral feeder near him is enough of a deterrent.