Aptasia - Peppermint shrimp

[reeftank1]

Just a quick note with regards to these little buggers that seem to crop up every now and then with folks. I had about 30 of them and they seemed to be on the increase. I ordered 20 peppermint shrimp from reeftopia and my tank is Aptasia free. I had read about it and never had luck before. The batch that I received had ate them all in less than one week. By the way, the shipping and packaging was great and just about half of these shrimp had eggs.

 

[roscoe]

You want to sell or trade me a few of them?

 

[dailydriven911]

I recently added a peppermint as well and he took care of my aptasia as well. I had 5-6 that I could see and now only have 1 left...

 

[mmkeeper]

Becareful they will mess with your zoo's also.

 

[mmkeeper]

i just use Kalk paste.

 

[reeftank1]

I tried Calk, Joe's juice, hot water, prayers, etc. These little shrimp cleaned is so quick I could hardly believe it but I have checked several times and can't seem to find a single one.
So far, so good with the zoo's but they grow like weeds in there too!

 

[treehugger]

They work great until they start eating your acans, zoas, snacking on your sun corals. Those little buggers are quick too...tried spearing them without success. I think I might have killed the little $#%$@#@ finally though.

 

[dlove18]

they will also munch your tube worms. if the tube is big enough for them to get their foot into, they'll pull them right out. I haven't seen them mess with the big ones. they can't get the small ones. they are mean little buggers.

 

[jagwire]

peps

in my experience peppermint shrimp so quite well it ridding our tanks of apstasia. the problem that i have had is not with them messing with anything in paticular until feeding time that is. when i would got to spot feed mysis shrimp the little buggers would ravage any coral that i was spot feeding and keep on until it got what it the food.

as far a kalk paste i must admit i was getting quite frustrated when i first started that as a solution. everytime i would kalk an ap it would disapear but then there would be ten smaller ones within in a week. i guess i just wasnt diong it the smartest way possible and have had much more success since i started,


1 turning off all pumps and covering the area with calk for about 20 mins and just let it totally melt the ap.

2 after there was no more sign of the little bastards i would then take some small airline tubbing and siphon around the area which had been calked. then turned pumps back on and let everything settle back in.

this has stopped all the little ones replacing the on that i just nuked. hope this might help those that are having the same problem i was.

 

[TERMINIX]

Do you still have all your shrimp and are they staying up with the job?

 

[reeftank1]

Still have them and they seem to be keeping to themselves. No aptasia . I suppose I could trap them but can't seem to see a reason to do it. My SPS, LPS, zoos, etc are all fine as far as I can tell.

 

[dj tryrd]

ive been wanting to bread peppermints but i cant get them to live long enough. i have one thats been around for about 6 months first one i ever got now i cant get another one to live long enough to mate . how do you manage thirty withou them becoming fishy mortalities

 

[reeftank1]

lots of rock. 300+ gallons

 

[Bainic]

Would you consider selling a couple/few of them? I have an aiptasia problem that I've been battling for a while with little luck. Thanks!

 

[jeffnewt]

I got one of those pep shrimp- but he was not that busy and didn't help all that much, and then went MIA. I don't have anything that could have swallowed him whole, unless he went through the overflow down to the lair of the eel in the sump. I may never know- or the coral shrimp killed him and stashed his body lol.

 

[kirkland]

We had a small aiptasia problem for a bit. We'd see maybe 6-10 on the rocks. Then I noticed that there was a whole colony of them on the back wall where we couldn't reach. We got 1 peppermint shrimp. Within 5 days, all the aiptasia was gone, and never seen again, but neither was the shrimp. We had 2 cleaners and 1 fire shrimps that were bigger than the peppermint so maybe they did him in? It was worth the $15!

 

[jeffnewt]

"My work here is done, I must continue my journey"


Or perhaps they find a nice cave and lie in wait for the apstasia to return, like a obi wan shrimp of some type.

 

[dpaynter]

I got one of those pep shrimp- but he was not that busy and didn't help all that much, and then went MIA. I don't have anything that could have swallowed him whole, unless he went through the overflow down to the lair of the eel in the sump. I may never know- or the coral shrimp killed him and stashed his body lol.

By coral shrimp, are you referring to a coral banded shrimp? If so, CBS do eat peppermint shrimp.

 

[jeffnewt]

well, I think that is the best scenario. That coral shrimp is a real character. I can't decide who acts tougher, him or the damsel.