Peppermint Shrimp vs Aiptasia

[Anonymous]

I'm looking for a natural way of removing aiptasia from my tank, I've read a lot of posts concerning this subject and have come to the conclusion that peppermint shrimp is one of the most widely used methods.

Now the big question whats the catch??? What drawbacks do p'shrimp have, if any, and where can I go on the web to research & purchase.

Thanks,

 

[Anonymous]

Heater:

One catch is that they don't always work. I've had mixed results with them. While some claim they go to work immediately, I've had some that would only eat them if I had already killed the aiptasia by injection. Others are simply slow to go to it. Be patient, and kill off the big ones yourself if you can.

One factor may be how much other food they get. I feed my tank 3 times a day, so they get lots of other stuff. It appears that the 6 I presently have would rather eat fish food than aiptasia!

Otherwise, I know of no drawback to them. They are nicely behaved citizens in my tank.

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Randy Holmes-Farley

 

[Anonymous]

What size tank is it? Theres several butterflys that will eat aiptasia, but bear in mind, they will eat featherdusters first, then the aiptasia. And there's always a risk wish fish, after the aip's they might go for lps. I've got a racoon in my reef, he's been good so far, ate every aiptasia, he picks on corals, but not enough to damage them. L8r mega

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[Anonymous]

Please realize that there are TWO kinds of peppermint shrimp and only ONE of them eats aptaisa. One variety comes from California and doesn't eat it, the other comes from the Carribean and does. Make sure you know which one you're getting!!

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AN EDUCATED HOBBYIST DEMANDS AN ETHICAL AND SUSTAINABLE INDUSTRY.
www.reefsource.com

 

[Anonymous]

Heater

I had an outbreak of these things and I put
three peppermint shrimp in and 2 weeks later
not a single aiptasia found,they eat all of them.

David

 

[Anonymous]

Mary, correct me if I'm wrong, there is only 1 type of pepermint, lysmata sp. and the other one commonly sold as pepermint is really a camel shrimp, rhyno. sp. I have had great luck with camel shrimp, they definitly eat aiptasia, however, they also eat mushrooms and zooanthids (big plus for me, I dont want them in my tank) L8r mega

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[Anonymous]

"The commonly sold Rhynchocinese uritai is another potential coral eater ... these shrimp will feed on most corals in the auarium including stony corals, mushroom anemones and especially zoonthids. Although they can be utilized to eat juvenile Aiptasia anemones, they will not restrict their diets to just this one food item and will eventually attack other cnidarians."

Sprung and Delbeek, The Reef Aquarium

This book recommends the sea slug Berghia for aiptasia control. One thing--whatever you do--do not try to remove the aiptasia yourself. They reproduce asexually and any fragment left in the tank will produce a new aiptasia.

 

[Anonymous]

Reef Queen:

<<One thing--whatever you do--do not try to remove the aiptasia yourself. They reproduce asexually and any fragment left in the tank will produce a new aiptasia.>>

While removing isn't easy, killing them in place can be, and many people do this (myself included). There are many methods, but injecting them with something is the most popular (the alkalinity part of B-ionic (my choice), cloudy limewater, muriatic acid, boiling water, etc.).

I've also successfully removed them by hand. This is best done if the object (like a powerhead or small rock) is completely removed from the tank, and the aiptasia is removed and rinsed in another source of salt water (or even fresh).

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Randy Holmes-Farley

 

[Anonymous]

Mega,

Actually, there are three "peppermint" species. One is the one we want - Lysmata wurdemanni. The California peppermint is Lysmata californicus (sp?), a temperate shrimp and unsuitable to a tropical reef. The third are the Rhynchocinese sp. (sp?) which are coral eaters. HTH,

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Dan
Minotaur15 on #reefs
Captive propagation will be our salvation. Do your part.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks everyone for there help, someone asked a question as to the size of my tank. It's a 125 gal., and I'm just about finished stocking it with live rock. Not any coral or inverts other then what hitched and a few blue legs and scarlets hermit. Hopefully by this time next month LR will be in place and the coral stocking along with a few little fishes will be introduced. Of course not all at once.

Thanks again.

 

[Anonymous]

If your tank currently has no corals in then you are in a most enviable position, as far as for aptasia removal. Get a copperbanded butterfly and give him some solo time to rid you tank of these nuissances. There is no danger since there is nothing for him to pick at. If you really like him after he's done you can keep him and watch to make sure he dose'nt pick at the corals as you add them. This is also a great oppurtunity to teach him to like other foods (ie mussels). This IMO is the most economical way to solve your problem and if you want to, your LFS will likely buy him back at wholesale or credit you when your done.

ZQY

 

[Anonymous]

We have an outbreak of Aiptasia in our 200. We tried fighting it by injection and that worked real good for the ones you can see but it doesn't help on the ones in the back of the tank that you can't see that just turn around and make more. I talked to my supplier yesterday and he is sending me 4 of the Berghia Nudibranchs so I will let you all know how it goes. Two of them are for our tank and the other two are for a friend's tank so we will get two different tests. I also have a 10 gallon tank that I raised snails in that is just loaded with Aiptasia so that should give them something to munch on after they are done with the 200 until I can find a new home for them. I have Eric Borneman's article on them so I am as ready as I am going to get. Time to go Aiptasia killing. One of our LFS has an Aiptasia in one of theirr tanks that is as big as a normal Condy anemone and it is pretty cool.

 

[Anonymous]

I keep Rhynchocinese uritai in my tank, I know books say they eat corals, but mine havent, I had one a couple years ago, he was in the tank slightly over a year, no problems. The current one has been in the tank about 2 months, again, no problems. They do eat aiptasia, I'm hoping they eat mushrooms!!! I got a zooanthid eating snail to control the zooanthids, so far he's doing his job very well. L8r mega

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