A little [i]Aiptasia[/i] problem - peppermint shrimp???

[trigger0214]

OK..a huge problem. There are so many...I can’t keep up. My latest method has been to inject them with a Ca(OH)2 slurry...which became a more like ‘leave a pile of Ca(OH)2 slurry on top of them’. But now their growth is exponential! I've read that peppermint shrimp while prey on the little bast***s, but I am worried about the shrimp also preying on my xenia, sps's and softies. Any thoughts, ideas, or toxic mixtures?? Help!

 

[ReefLion]

I had a small but growing problem, and just purchased some peppermints. They seem to be doing the job, from what I can tell, but I understand they are hit or miss. Mine are in my sump refugium, so I don't have any info on them going after corals or polyps (although I've never heard of that).

Tim

 

[SPC]

They work for me. I think the problem lies in obtaining true peppermint shrimp and they are very difficult to tell the difference between them and another species. I can tell you that I purchase mine from http://www.reeftopia.com/ and these eat aiptasia.
Steve

 

[Rich-n-poor]

Inject the little suckers with boiling water kills them and they dont come back.
_________________
Honda Nighthawk

 

[ChrisRD]

I had about a dozen of them pop up in my new tank. I did the boiling kalk mix - not injection, but just squirting them from about an 1" away. Leave the blob on them. I'm 12 for 12 with this method - no survivors. Haven't seen anymore in at least a week now. HTH.

 

[Mike02]

I have a peppermint shrimp that zealously ate all the aiptasia i had. for some reason though it also attacked one of my FL ricordia polyps. It ate what it could and the polyp died within 3 days of the attack. It didnt bother the orange polyp that i had (i now have 3 polyps and one has 2 mouths). since that episode, there hasnt been anymore incidents with the shrimp. i also have clove polyps which are little flower looking things that sends out runners. that coral has cropped up all over my tank. anyway, the shrimp doesnt bother those either. the bad thing is that i have to feed the shrimp which i do about every other day with flake food. i can hand feed it though since it comes up to the water surface to get it.

 

[Mike02]

i wanted to add that when i went to the LFS i got the biggest peppermint shrimp that they had because i read somewhere that the bigger shrimps are more likely to eat aiptasia.

 

[AgentSPS]

Peppermint shrimp work well but another alternative is a healthy copperband butterfly. I 'borrowed' one for about two weeks and he went nutz on the aiptasia! Did not touch anything else either. I would use a butterfly in conjunction with shrimp as the shrimp can get to spots the butterfly cannot. You might also try using a syringe and meuratic acid! Boiling water is a pain and you need a large enough syringe (500 cc) so the tank wont cool the contents down too fast.