Peppermint Shrimp not eating Aipstasia???

[Chucker]

rkkim- two caveats here.

1- Peppermints (just like any other critter) often will take the easiest prey first, so they'll prefer the yummy morsels we drop in every day.

2- Every animal is an individual, and isn't bound by any preconceptions we have for its behavior

 

[2poor2reef]

What chucker said, plus ten or eleven days is not enough time to see meaningful depradation in a heavy infestation. Make sure you have at ;east 12 hours of darkness 'cause that's when they're active. Make sure you got the wunderami shrimp and not camelbacks. And I would again reiterate chucker's point 1. I've seen well fed tanks where the pepps never had to settle for aiptasia, and so they didn't.

 

[MattM]

I concur with giving more time, but the two most common reasons we've seen for this are:

1) Not really a Lysmata wurdemanni, but a camel shrimp sold as a peppermint.

2) Not really Aiptasia, but something that looks similar. Peppermints won't touch Crucifers (Phymanthus sp.), Curliques (Bartholomea annulata), or Majano's.

Chucker's hypothesis of being too well fed is reasonable too, but the vigor we've seen when a Peppermint goes after an Aiptasia leads me to believe it's one of their favorite snacks.

 

[rkkim]

I recently purchased two peppermint shrimp in hope of eliminating my aipstasia problem. I've now had them for about a week and a half and my aipstasia are as they were. I know peppermints don't eat the larger ones but I also know that as long as I kill/exterminate the larger ones by hand the peppermints will kill of the smaller ones. What is up?

 

[KenH]

I have had the best success with the larger sized shrimp. You might also try increasing the number depending on how big your tank is. In my experience the Peppermints took care of all the aiptasia, no matter what size the aiptasia were.

I have used them on three different occasions and been successful each time. In one tank, I added a couple of shrimp and nothing happened for a couple of weeks so I added a couple more and still nothing. I finally added a couple more including a large pregnant female and all of a sudden they decided to take care of the aiptasia almost overnight. Not sure why, perhaps the pregnant female had a yearning for them... w who knows.

Here is what your shrimp should look like if there is any doubt as to whether you have the right ones.

--- Ken

 

[somethings fishy]

I have two peps in my 75 and they seem to prefer to munch on my huge xenia patch. I did notice they ate some aptasia but I have such a huge Xenia patch they would rather stay near.

 

[jmosmc]

I have never had success with pepperment shrimp, arrow crabs, or butterfly fish.

I have had success with berghia nudibrach. try this link, guaranteed success.
[email protected]
seaslug-vs-aptasia

 

[Enkidu]

My peppermints don't eat any of my aptasia either. I've got 2 berghia's on their way, hopefully they'll take care of business.

 

[MedicineMan1]

I also have had no luck with the peppermints. Perhaps KenH has the right idea with "overpopulating" them.
I've tried the Berghia, too. I actually saw one chow down an aiptasia but have seen nothing of them since and it's been 5 or 6 months. I think my peppermint shrimp ate the Berghia.

At any rate, someone posted here a while back about using 18 gauge speaker wire wound up on a dowel and "electrocuting" the little ba$tad$ with a 9 volt battery.

I'm desperate enough to try that. Seems easier than kalk-paste, which is effective but a pain to mix and draw into the syringe.