Aiptasia and Peppermint Shrimp

[connpatd]

ThoughtI posted this before I left the office, but I don't see my post anywhere so I guess I didn't submit...

Anyway, I added a few pepermint shrimp a week ago to clean out 5 or 6 sprouts of Aiptasia that I discovered and so far they don't seem ot have toughed any of them.

Do I need to add a whole bunch of the peps or do you think they'll get to it eventually (before the smll problem becomes a big one)?

[tdchicago]

i put a peppermint in, and never saw it again!

Joe's juice, cheaper and faster

[kau_cinta_ku]

pep's are a hit or miss. as stated just use joes juice, boiling water, kalk, or lemon juice to rid them.

[papagimp]

Peppermint shrimps are not a guaranteed to feed on the aptasia's. Their simply "known" to eat them. Same with emerald crabs and bubble algae. Some will eat it like it's the best thing in the world, others won't ever touch it. I've got 3 peppermints througout my various tanks and have yet to see a single one eat an aptasia. Adding more won't neccessarily fix the problem either, probably will get at least one to touch em, or starve em all out until somebody starts to eat em. If ya overfeed as so many aquarists are apt to do, they'll quickly fall into the habit of waiting for feeding times and ignore alot of their typical behavoir. At least that's what i've seen. My don't come out of hiding unless i'm feeding the tank.

manual removal of the pests are all that's worked for me, and even then, seems to be a loosing battle as of lately.

[MalHavoc]

Originally posted by tdchicago
i put a peppermint in, and never saw it again!

Joe's juice, cheaper and faster

Joe's juice is a waste of money. It works, but it's just kalkwasser paste, and you can make it yourself at a fraction of the cost.

[greatfish123]

i've seen many threads on this. But why is aiptasia such a bad thing in a reef.(i'm a newbie )

[kau_cinta_ku]

they will sting anything it touches. and they grow very fast and will take over the tank.

[greatfish123]

ah i see. thanks. just to confirm is this a pic of one: http://fins.actwin.com/pics/Aiptasia_sp2.jpg

[Ziggy953]

I say get the Joe's Juice and be done with them. The pep shrimp are fun to watch but as was said they are hit or miss.

[kau_cinta_ku]

Originally posted by greatfish123
ah i see. thanks. just to confirm is this a pic of one: http://fins.actwin.com/pics/Aiptasia_sp2.jpg

yes that would be them

[greatfish123]

thanks!

[vikings10]

I battled Aiptasia for a long time. Eventually i added a racoon
butterflyfish and soon afterwards they disappeared.

[Ronny#66]

MalHavoc : How do you make the paste need exact reciept . I got quite a few aptaisia in my 25 gal. How do you get at the ones under the rocks. Don't want to rearange rocks.

[1628mna]

I bought a peppermint shrimp put it into the tank and in 15 minutes it was on top of my maxijet1200. I put vinegar in a syringe then go up to the aptasia slowly. I wait till it grabs the syringe then pump it full of vinegar. The downside is you can only do two or three at a time. After i do that i wait a day then boil some water put that in a syringe then inject the space where the aptasia is. The aptasia falls right off. Suck it up with the same syringe. Works every time.

[MalHavoc]

Originally posted by Ronny#66
MalHavoc : How do you make the paste need exact reciept . I got quite a few aptaisia in my 25 gal. How do you get at the ones under the rocks. Don't want to rearange rocks.

Just add a bit of the kalk powder to some RO/DI water and make a slurry out of it. It's just a thin paste/thick liquid. No special gimmicks. Then suck it up with a syringe and inject it. You can get syringes at the drugstore, in the diabetes product section.

If they are under the rocks you're going to have to rearrange the rocks.

[SuperNerd]

Peppermint shrimp are not just going to eat aiptasia. In fact some of them won't even touch the anemones. Kalk paste smothered over the anemones will eventually get rid of the anemones.