Peppermint shrimp

[ssc]

Is it true that peppermint shrimp will kill the aptasia I am starting to have a problem

[ChimolaFish]

Yes, they will eat small aptasia. If it gets too big, they'll ignore it. They can be picky and not eat it sometimes, but they're one of the few creatures that will eat it. By the way, they are social creatures so you should consider getting at least 3 instead of one. It's cruel to keep one by itself. Plus, they'll be more efficient. They will require feeding on their own when the aptasia is gone also, and since they don't eat algae, you should consider shrimp or as mine love, small bits of squid. They're nocturnal, so you won't see them all the time, but with time they may come out during the day. Their antics can be kinda funny, I enjoy mine when I see them.

[Fallling]

Maybe. For some people, they work. For myself, they haven't worked, but I feed heavily so they might be getting enough food from that. Make sure you get the true peppermint shrimp, Lysmata wurdemanni, if you do try. There are other shrimp that look VERY similar to peppermints but don't eat aptasia.

[ssc]

Thank you I am going and I will make sure I get three do the fish go after them

[ChimolaFish]

Fish that eat shrimp will certainly go after them. Reef safe fish won't. Like the other guy said make sure they are true peppermints.

[Saltliquid]

Peps, that are a lysmata type of shrimp, boy and girl in one, eat anything; they are small animal eaters, pure and simple, that being if other food isn’t laid on. This includes small shedding red line shrimp, small fish, shedding anemone crabs and so on. They may also eat small mushroom coral flesh and pick the flesh out of other coral types, that is if you are unlucky! There are tons of them down the road from home and I see how they live!

[oh207]

Its a hit or miss for me. But give it a try. A lot of folks have reported success.

[smoothie7]

I put 3 peppermints in my tank 8 days ago and I have only seen 1 ever.

[Spar]

i always had good luck personally. i would add 6 or more at a time. if you can get one to eat the pests then the others will learn how themselves. IME anyway.

i added 6 to my DT recently. the first one i added got torn up on its way down to the rock work. the other 5 made it. unfortunate for the one, but once added and the shrimp were in the rock work, the fish seem to ignore them. lesson learned... escort the shrimp to the rocks, not just drop them in like i did.

[Spiffy]

I picked up 4 of them a while back to take care of my aiptasia problem and they took of care of the problem in about 4 days. I haven't seen a single aiptasia since then. Sadly, none of the shrimp survived longer then 3 months. They all died off one at a time. And my ocellaris clowns took out my Fire Shrimp...

[Kearnel]

I've had my 3 little guys for over a year, there are times where weeks will go by without a trace of them then I'll see a shell from a molt. I'll go on the hunt for them at night and sure enough they all pop up. I never feed em or anything, just leave em to scrounge up whatever they come across. When I offer pellets to the fish I do try and throw some towards the back so it'll sink down into the rock work.

[Kona26]

I would get a file fish...I have had much better luck with these...I have 1 in my 125g and keeps is looking good...I hate buying 4-6 shrimp to maybe take care of the issue.

[ssc]

I got three today one ate a star fish two minutes after I put them in the tank and I haven't seen any of them since just hope they go after the aphasia

[Tomtopping]

I got peppermint shrimp for same reason I dumped them in out of the bag and they never touched the sand bed went right after aiptasia cleaned it up in no time

[ssc]

What type of file fish should I get seems to be a few different types

[Kona26]

My lfs sells them as apitasia eating file fish

[triggreef]

Yikes watch out with the file fish. I've seen one of the most beautiful displays I ever saw consumed by one that was added for the same purpose; and the aiptasia are still there.

The shrimp may or may not work. If you like to target feed your corals forget it. The shrimp will target the corals catches and let other chunks float by them only to grab the rest of what the coral caught. I had one eat a very nice yuma that I had as well. For whatever reason it decided it want that one yuma.

There are some aiptasia eating butterfly fish you can look into as well. Hit or miss also and they host their own dangers.

My suggestion would be lemon juice. Turn off all water flow, load up a syringe, pole the crap out of them and let them soak in a partial ml of lemon juice for a few minutes. Turn pumps back on. Don't do more than a couple at a time depending on your volume of tank water. That has worked well for me in the past but I never had an out of control problem just a couple here and there.

Do a bunch of reading, and make an informed decision. There are thousands of similar threads as this.

[ssc]

So both can go the file fish and the peppermint shrimp can go after the coral

[Heathcoot]

If trying the peppermints I recommend feeding the tank decently the day u buy the shrimp and before adding and not feeding for like 3 days after and the uh seem to do the job well but in reason getting the adequate number of shrimp for the size of the tank

[Cesfilly]

My peppermint shrimp did take care of aiptasia, but once they ate all that, they went for my Duncan and hammer head. I caught them eating the hammer head and immediately banished them to the sump, everything is much happier without them. I would have rather spared myself all that work and simply used the syringe method.

[rocsec1]

Mine dont

[Boom]

I have watched my 3 Lysmata boggessi eat aptasia within seconds after introducing the rock to their brood stock tank. The aptasia had popped up in the larval tank. There are only two LR in the broodstock tank so it doesn't take them long to find new food... and only 6 emerald crabs and kelp as tankmates. I have one shrimp in the DT but it hasn't touched 3 aptasia in there (?).

[Saltliquid]

Yeh with peps they will eat each other as well when shedding, if no one else does, lol.

[puck66871]

I am going to add 3 peppermint shrimp tonight to see if it helps for me. I have been using Kalkwasser to keep them from spreading more. Should I kill as much as I can before I add the shrimp or maybe just the biggest ones?

[MythicalReef]

Originally Posted by Cesfilly

My peppermint shrimp did take care of aiptasia, but once they ate all that, they went for my Duncan and hammer head. I caught them eating the hammer head and immediately banished them to the sump, everything is much happier without them. I would have rather spared myself all that work and simply used the syringe method.

+1

Peppermint shrimp eat corals. Period. Will never put one in a tank again.