Aptasia pandemic!!!!

[Seasonedreefer]

I am having a miserable time trying to eliminate an aptasia breakout in my 75 gallon mixed reef I have no clue how I got it? but I have it! and want it gone stat! Open to suggestions. Tried kalk paste solution and IMO it made them double! I'm thinking CBB or Nudibranchs but I have a Mystery wrasse and large Tangs so both options will be risky.

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Get you some peppermint shrimp! Always worked for me!

 

[Seasonedreefer]

will peppermints even take out bigger aptasia? I'm also worried my mystery wrasse will have them for a snack.

 

[ReefDreams]

I'm having the same problem, I tried peppermint shrimps in the past and have had succes with them. By any chance would anyone know if peppermint shrimps are aggressive towards sexy shrimps.

 

[cjvale]

I'm having the same problem, I tried peppermint shrimps in the past and have had succes with them. By any chance would anyone know if peppermint shrimps are aggressive towards sexy shrimps.

not in my tank have4 sexy then the aptasia came in, got 2 peps an all were and are fine.

 

[SteveT]

I also have a sexy shrimp and 2 peppermints that are fine together. The peppermints eradicated my aptasia in a few days

 

[Cole_lol]

Peppermint Shrimp +1 here.... I have two (i think havent seen them in a while) in my 90 gallon and they did a number on them but it did take them a little while to get all of the aptasias in my tank. I have read that you need to make sure you get a true peppermint shrimp as some places sell a shirmp that is very close to a peppermint but dosent do as well on the aptasias...

 

[Kidnotorius]

I thought I was loosing the battle to aphasia until i got 2 peppermints, and they have been crazy friendly and peaceful towards their tank mates

 

[jordan3548]

I had a 120 that had a pretty bad infestation of those so I bought 30 peppermint shrimp sounds like alot but I had 2 tanks well I sold the 2ns and put all of them in the one and literally in2 weeks i was aipstasia free and they all got along with everything abd were very active everytime i fed youd see them everywhere

 

[victornator333]

You have to make sure that wherever you buy them from, they are actually peps and not camel shrimp. Also from my experience, if you are worried about them not going after the bigger ones, you should hit those with kalk first. From my observations, they seem to attack the weakened aiptasia if given the opportunity.

 

[tst400]

Copperband all the way. One keeps my 180 aptasia. Free

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[Nuocmam]

I heard that after all the aiptasia is eaten the shrimps could go after lps or softies. Is this true?

 

[slugwall]

I also read the same thing on the net, but... Peppermint Shrimp have worked for me... I just posted about my aptasia and I used lemon juice on the bigger ones. I bought a peppermint shrimp and my Purple Stripe Dotty Fish ate him the next day, this was just last week.

 

[Braves Fan]

Been down this road as many have. I tried the Copperband, the LFS owner told me they would do a number on the aptisia but that there was an outside chance that it would go after my zoas also. It did and I pretty much had to destroy the tank to get him out. The pepermint shrimp did the job, I did find that they wouldn't touch the bigger atipisa and had to use Atipisa X on those, but they took care of the smaller ones. The tank never really became Aptisia free but the fight was manageable after the Peppermint shrimp were added. JMO I think the Copperband isn't worth the risk, if you get one as I did that goes after your zoas, if you have any, you will have to tear the tank down to get him out. You can't wait for a fish trap to catch him, your zoas maybe gone by then. The reason my tank never became Atipisa free was because I had some big ones in my overflow box that I couldn't get to without taking the canopy off. My new tank will not have a canopy, the Atipisa is one of the reasons why, not the only reason, but one of them.

 

[Paul_N]

If you feed your tank a lot the peps can be hit or miss. I used a file fish and and it worked like a charm. The only thing is when the aiptasia are down to a few he will start to go after lps and zoas. Here is a thread from when I put one in my tank. The plus side is they are very easy to catch.

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/fish-discussion/38434-aptasia-eating-filefish.html

 

[markak]

Do Peppermint Shrimp eat Mojoes too? If not what does? I have a copperband, does a good job on the smaller aptasia, but not on the larger ones.

 

[SDguy]

My matted filefish ate every majano and aptasia in my tank. Bothers nothing else, and is WAYYY more hardy than a CBB (more size appropriate too for that size tank).

 

[AquamanE]

Aeptasia X works wonders.

 

[greg0385]

Boiling water will kill them, killed 4 in my sump yest using this method.

 

[droblack]

CBB is your best friend. Will wipe em out in a day or two, and then you will never see them again. That is, if you get a CBB with a taste for aiptasia. Of course, most animals can be trained. Teach it to love aiptasia if need be.

Peps are eventually problematic ime, particularly if one keeps lps and/or softies. If you spot feed your corals ever, or just when they happen to catch some stray food floating by in the water column, the peps begin to associate coral with food. Leads to theft, then to ripping food out of the coral mouths, and eventually to coral predation. Not talking about camel backs here, have seen and heard of this with peps on multiple occasions.