Coral Banded Shrimp with Peppermint Shrimp

FishyDP · Mar 16, 2019

So I have a small aiptasia outbreak in my 150 with 30 sump. I see 3 fairly good sized ones, and I imagine there are more. One did a number on my rastas. I am going to give peppermint shrimp a try..probably going to order 3-4 from live aquaria. I know they are hit or miss. My question is regarding my fairly large coral banded shrimp..will he make a quick dinner of the peppermint shrimp?

Any other other advice regarding the peppermint shrimp is welcome. I have zoas, acans, hammers, duncan, micromussa, blastos. Yellow tang, coral beauty, clowns, blue damsels..and a copperband in the sump due to getting beaten on by my tang..that is another story. 9 months into reefing and I am quickly learning to do my homework before adding anything to my tank..

ndrwater · Mar 16, 2019

Lose the yellow, add the CBB back in, skip the peppermints. They are the devil

FishyDP · Mar 16, 2019

ndrwater said:
Lose the yellow, add the CBB back in, skip the peppermints. They are the devil

I can't part with my Tang, he is one of the OGs. I am determined to nurse the cbb back to health and get him eating well and strong. Can you please give some specifics regarding the devil reference? Do they eat corals? Breath fire?

ndrwater · Mar 16, 2019

Much less fire, much more Coral eating..
IF... peppermints do a number on aptasia, there is a high probability of them then being hungry and going after your corals.
I am not alone in my experience. For every "I have peppermints and they don't touch anything" there are many many more extolling the fact that the peppermints are "now eating my corals"
In an SPS tank this may not be as much if an issue, but if there are acans, euphillia, or other LPS in the tank, look out...

FishyDP · Mar 16, 2019

ndrwater said:
Much less fire, much more Coral eating..
IF... peppermints do a number on aptasia, there is a high probability of them then being hungry and going after your corals.
I am not alone in my experience. For every "I have peppermints and they don't touch anything" there are many many more extolling the fact that the peppermints are "now eating my corals"
In an SPS tank this may not be as much if an issue, but if there are acans, euphillia, or other LPS in the tank, look out...

Thanks for sharing your experience with the Peppermint shrimp..if it is 50/50 that they will eat lps/softies I dont think I will be putting them in. Since I only have a few aiptasias I will try to manually get rid of them, maybe super glue. If they return or quickly multiply, do you have any recommendations of a critter or fish that will take care of them?..of course without going to town on my corals.

ndrwater · Mar 16, 2019

Best answers are either Copperband or Klein's butterflies. Berghia nudibranches are also a good option but somewhat difficult to source and usually spendy. In a 150, your probably need more than 10 Berghias to get the job done. At $10-$15 each, kinda spendy.

André Brasil · Mar 16, 2019

Have personaly seen a peppermint munching on my zoas, couple days after killing all the aiptasia...so, at best, he should be a very temporary resident, ime.

FishyDP · Mar 16, 2019

ndrwater said:
Best answers are either Copperband or Klein's butterflies. Berghia nudibranches are also a good option but somewhat difficult to source and usually spendy. In a 150, your probably need more than 10 Berghias to get the job done. At $10-$15 each, kinda spendy.

I looked online for berghia nudibranches and they are hard to find..and pricey like you said. Unfortunately it does not look like my cbb is going to make it. It was very hard to get him to eat, and I don't want to see another one not survive. I am going to look into the Klein butterfly, thanks again.

FishyDP · Mar 16, 2019

André Brasil said:
Have personaly seen a peppermint munching on my zoas, couple days after killing all the aiptasia...so, at best, he should be a very temporary resident, ime.

That is not good, I have a good amount of zoas..but it is good to hear that they went after the aiptasias first. Maybe I could put a small crew in there to take care of the issue, and then put them in my refugium. Are they hard to catch?

FishyDP · Mar 16, 2019

Oh, and back to the original question, will my coral banded shrimp make a dinner out of the peppermint shrimp?

André Brasil · Mar 16, 2019

FishyDP said:
That is not good, I have a good amount of zoas..but it is good to hear that they went after the aiptasias first. Maybe I could put a small crew in there to take care of the issue, and then put them in my refugium. Are they hard to catch?

Would really depend on your rock work...not specially difficult.

Mastiffsrule · Mar 16, 2019

I added both about a year ago to my 180. I rarely see them but they are getting along. My banded is pretty big and can see his antenna from behind the rock, but the other is smaller. I had thought him gone for the longest time, and then next thing you know there he is.

He has not messed with any of my corals, but mine are mostly softies. He has not come to the front to eat the aptasia. He may have more than enough in the back.

FishyDP · Mar 20, 2019

So I pulled the trigger and purchased 6 berghia nudibranches from Reeftown. They came in a nice speciman cup and were in good shape, and the water looked very clean. Based on comments above I dont want to put any pep shrimps in my tank, and the cbb did not work out.

I turned off my powerheads and placed them all on the same rock near a large aiptasia. 2 hours later the aiptasia is not visible..maybe coincidence but if they already took 1 down that is great. Will update if they mow down the other 4-5 I have.

3mm3 · Mar 20, 2019

FishyDP said:
Oh, and back to the original question, will my coral banded shrimp make a dinner out of the peppermint shrimp?

My experience. When I added a handful of peppermint shrimp one made a mistake and tried to hide in the banded shrimp cave. He was killed immediately. The others stay well away from the banded shrimp including the skunk shrimp and blood shrimp.