Do peppermint shrimps really eat aiptasia?

mfbs1998 · May 29, 2019

has anyone ever had success on dealing with an aiptasia problem using peppermint shrimp? I am on my last nerve right now and thinking about getting a couple to kill them. I know you have to get a specific kind of peppermint shrimp in order for it to work but even then, it is still a hit or miss.

I have been using aiptasia away for months now and it only slows them down and not kill them. If anyone has any other suggestions please let me know.

Mike N · May 29, 2019

0/5 for me.
I currently have some berghia nudibranches in the tank.

Eagle_Steve · May 29, 2019

How big of a tank, how many aiptasia you got?

Also, peppermint shrimp will eat aiptasia, camal shrimp will not. We have a local LFS here that has some peppermints that destroy it and will let you bring in a small piece of rock with some on it to place in a cup with a shrimp to show you they eat it. Maybe see if an LFS in your area will do the same. That is one way to see for sure if the ones they carry do eat it, as it can be hit or miss with them.

Another option is berghia nudis for them. Granted you will need to find a home for them when they eat it all or they will die, they are a little pricey, but it is all they eat.

here is an example of them.

https://saltyunderground.com/produc...yLyMVQnGfYoQFkh_FXxHQGBSyQalOBWxoCyT8QAvD_BwE

I have personally used them and they took a bit, but in the tank I had them clean for a friend, they did an awesome job. 1 year later and no Aiptasia to be found in his tank. We were able to rehome 20 of the 10 we got. Yes they had babies lol. A few probably got missed and died from starvation, but they did their job.

lvsuckerfish · May 29, 2019

I personally have never had one that ate Aiptasia I ended up getting Nudis to do the job. The bad with nudi's is once the Aiptisa is gone they will starve. Best to catch them and resale them to a local reefer.

W1ngz · May 29, 2019

50/50 for me. I bought one for the office nano tank and it ignored them. When we hadn't seen it for a few weeks, I replaced it. Turns out the first one had found a deep enough hole in a rock and hid whenever the lights were on during office hours. Added a second one, which encouraged the first to come out more, and within a week of adding the 2nd, all the aiptaisia were gone.

fastgoby · May 29, 2019

Some already have acquired a taste for it, but it's a gamble. If you starve them you can maybe force them to eat it, but in a reef tank there's always something to eat (detritus, algae, etc), so that's probably not a good strategy lol.

TriggerFinger · May 29, 2019

I have one that did. The aiptasia was really small. My lfs also has a tank of aiptasia rocks and peppermint shrimp only. I watched the shrimp and some weren’t touching the aip but I made sure to get one that did.

Bouncingsoul39 · May 29, 2019

They will usually eat aiptasia in the absence of other easier food. So if you overfeed your tank daily and have stuff that's easy for them to grab they're not going to be motivated. So you basically starve your tank for a few days after putting them in. Once they are done with the aiptasia, there's a good chance they'll move onto LPS corals like Fungia/Cycloceris plates and others so beware.

ThePurple12 · May 29, 2019

My shrimp ate my new acans:mad:, and I'm sure it would eat aiptasia if I had any.

cracker · May 29, 2019

I recently put two in my 75. Iv'e only them once. Can't tell if they are eating apastia or not . However the apastia doesn't seem to be spreading . Now Every Copperband Iv'e owned wiped apastia out ! This tank is too small for these fish . Haven't tried files or the nudbrachs ...yet . only thing I hear all success about, are the nudibranch 's.

tehmadreefer · May 29, 2019

I used Peps and yes they ate aiptasia vigorously in addition to my acans and rics... and then they proceeded to all go in my overflow and couldn't get em out so they all died.

You have to be very careful to ensure you get the true peppermints as the other variety that looks almost the exact same, will not eat them.

I now have nudis and they are almost done in my 180. So will have a bunch for sale within next 3 months.

mfbs1998 · May 29, 2019

i'm having a minor outbreak right now probably around 7 of them right now but Im worried about more appearing.

right now i have a 46 gallon tank but im planning to upgrade to a 75 gallon this month.

The only problem i have with berghia nudibranchs is that I have a certain six line wrasse that will most likely eat those guys lol.

and thats the only that is scaring me about peps is that they might go for corals... i currently a ton of euphyllias, lobo, warpaint scolys, goniopora and a couple of sps. really dont want them to eat the euphyllias

lbacha · May 29, 2019

Aptasia x does a good job as well especially if you only have 7

Fiesty · May 29, 2019

Aptasia eating filefish if u have a large enough tank

Fiesty · May 29, 2019

Kalk paste (just mixed with rodi wster to thick paste and syringe) works wonders and. cheap. If u can reach them all?

tehmadreefer · May 29, 2019

mfbs1998 said:
i'm having a minor outbreak right now probably around 7 of them right now but Im worried about more appearing.

right now i have a 46 gallon tank but im planning to upgrade to a 75 gallon this month.

The only problem i have with berghia nudibranchs is that I have a certain six line wrasse that will most likely eat those guys lol.

and thats the only that is scaring me about peps is that they might go for corals... i currently a ton of euphyllias, lobo, warpaint scolys, goniopora and a couple of sps. really dont want them to eat the euphyllias

Ooh ya, those fleshy lps would be ate up before the aiptasia lol sps would he fine.

Matt Carden · May 29, 2019

Not worth the risk with Peppermints. I'm going to give the CBB a try next. The Apstasia I have are the kind that don't take over the tank but I don't want to take the chance. Besides I really like the CBB.

Wolf89 · May 29, 2019

There are two types of peppermint shrimp sold... one eats aiptasia, the other, mor common one, doesn't.

Wiskey · May 29, 2019

They really do! I had a crazy Aptasia problem in my 75, I bought about 10 peps and between them and AptasiaX the problem went away. When I see couple aptasia pop up I know that the peppermint shrimp had died and I buy two or three more and that's the end of that. The peppermint shrimp seem to only live about a year or two, and you will never see them unless you look in at night.

Whiskey

tehmadreefer · May 29, 2019

Matt Carden said:
Not worth the risk with Peppermints. I'm going to give the CBB a try next. The Apstasia I have are the kind that don't take over the tank but I don't want to take the chance. Besides I really like the CBB.

Just don't mess with them and they typically wont spread. I took a toothbrush to a bunch in my overflow and in 2 weeks I had thousands...