aiptasia

[llama72]

I am assuming through threads on this site that the peppermint shrimp is the best way to rid my tank of aiptasia. Now, if I buy these should i get 1 or more than one? Any recommendations will be appreciated.

[cdangel0]

There is no guaruntee that a peprmint shrimp will actually eat the aptasia. I have heard many, many people say they bought one just for this and it never touched the stuff.

Joe's juice would be another option.

If you go with the shrimp I would just get one.

[natsak1]

I had luck using Joe's Juice on aptasia, but not with the mojano anemone. The mojano went away for a while, but it came back. I'm still trying to see what will happen after a second dose to the mojano.

[SirSmapty]

I bought 3 peppermints and they took care of the problem very quick. I got lucky too since my peppermints were all carrying eggs and had babies. The fish in the tank were VERY happy when that happened. It was some good eatin for a while.

[peregrinus]

From what i hear there are 2 shrimp sold under the peppermint shimp name. one is the peppermint shrimp and the other is if i remember right a camel shrimp that looks like a peppermint. i have always used peppermint's and they have worked out great.

[sufunk]

In my 180g i got talked into putting 10 peppermint in my tank toget rid of the aiptasia. Their theory was that a few might not eat it but with that many, they would take care of any aiptasia on my 230lbs of lr.

It worked GREAT but now they are annoying me when i try to spot feed my slow eating brains. They always are stealing food from the corals. One died and i caught 6 more but there are 3 still in there annoying me.

If you dont mind them get more than one, maybe like 3-4 and that should get rid of the aiptasia.

[thecichlidpleco]

Not all peppermints will eat aiptasia, it depends on where they are from. I think there are two different varieties and only one eats it.

[MTB]

Some shops sell camel shrimp under the peppermint shrimp name. Camel shrimp are named that cause they have what looks like a camels hump on their back. That's the easiest to tell them a part. Some peps will eat aiptasia and some will not. I believe camel shrimp are not reef safe. I could be wrong though.

[frederickk]

camel shrimp are not reef safe and they won't go after your aptaisia problem.

I would recommend to go with three real peppermint shrimp. I did the experience and they got rid of aptaisia in about 2-3 weeks.

Of course they are nasty when there are no more aptaisia beacause they tend to steal food from your corals. Try to feed less at a time but twice a day or more. And try doing it during the day as peppermint don't usually go out during that period. If they dom that means they are very hungry and that you are under feeding the tank.

[navipro1]

ppmint shrimp runs around at night searching for food, depending on how large your tank is, I have 3 in my 240gal tank, they never ate the 5 Aiptasia that I had in there so I took out the rocks and placed it in my frag tank with 2 very hungry ppmind shrimps that I purposely starved in a quarantine tank for 1 week, 2 days later, all was gone.

[ToniYo]

I have always had great success with injecting them with boilng water. I use tank water in a coffee mug and a syringe with a needle. Inject slowly so as not to overheat corals in close proximity.

[JeffersonReef]

I put ONE pep shrimp in my 125g. At first, I didnt think it was doing anything, since I rarely saw him. A week or 2 later... I noticed that ALL THE AIPTAISA are gone... and never came back. I often get LR from reefers with new aiptasia on it (thanks guys)... but it doenst stand a chance with that little pep shrimp in there!

Also, consider this: once it is in your system (the pep shrimp), it will be really hard to catch it without killing it. They arent attractive at all... so do you really want to place 3 in your tank? I would start with one... odds are it will indeed eat the aiptasia. If it doesnt, then get another. HTH!

-Tony

[juan jose]

i tried everything on my tank, I used joe juice and other products, I tired shrimps and nothing worked until I got the ultimate aiptasia-killing machine at least for my tank......my copperband butterfly. In abot a month it has eaten more aiptasia than I had eliminated before. She is doing a great job. Now I have rocks which don´t have a single aiptasia.

[davidryder]

If you put a species in your tank to control another species, you run the risk of that species becoming a nuisance. I would never put a peppermint shrimp in my tank - they eat feather dusters also.

[navipro1]

they eat feather dusters? cool, maybe I should have more in my tank as my tank have tons of feather dusters all over the place, especially on the back tank walls, feather dusters seem to love my tank, I don't know why.

[davidryder]

Feather dusters are filter feeders... naturally filtering the water

[navipro1]

no wonder y my water is always crystal clear, however I need more of them (Feather dusters) on my sand bed to filter out all the dirty top layer like diatoms/algae =P

[frederickk]

Better try to keep your feather dusters as they are good,