Do peps really eat aiptasia?!

starfish · Sep 24, 2009

"Liquid" calcium shot into them will kill aptasia better than the commercial stuff and it doesn't hurt your tank.

Don't know if anyone else has ever had this experience with peppermints but beware if you have clams they will get inside of them. I had this happen. Maybe all won't but if I had any clams I would not risk it. They don't all eat aptasia its a grab bag so to speak when it comes to that.

FYI there is an aptasia eating file fish that some of the wholesalers have been offering. I tried one here in the store(as a test) in a tank that had some recycled rock full of aptasia and mojano and he cleaned everyone of them up better than a butterfly which butterflys are completely untrustworthy in a reef. They look like a leaf!

JR's Reef · Sep 24, 2009

Yes they will eat them but if you feed the fish in your tank they may not. They cant pass up a easy meal.

Acroholic · Sep 24, 2009

You can also purchase aptaisia eating Berghia nudibranchs here. Look to the bottom of the page. Scientific Corals is a company in the Atlanta Metro Area.

NanoFragHomePage

Palancar · Sep 24, 2009

I can definitely vouch for the peppermint shrimp collected along the Texas coast. They will tear the aiptasia anemones up.

carlosR · Nov 1, 2009

I've got 4 peps, I think, I hardly ever see them and when I do they kind of creep me out. They scuttle around under the rocks. They do eat the aiptasia but only the small ones. I'm going to purchase a copperband butterflyfish. They are definitely not creepy but I need to set up a quarantine tank and find a small fish.

Reef_Obsession · Nov 1, 2009

I keep on hearing that they do, but i've never had any luck with them.

rendos · Nov 2, 2009

We have a small (18 gallon) tank at the store with about 50 peppermint shrimp inside. Whenever we need to get rid of aiptasia, we put the rock with aiptasia in the tank, and by the next morning all the aiptasia are gone. The problem with peppermint shrimp for most people is that there aren't enough of them in the tank. When you concentrate a lot of them in a small space, and introduce the rock (or coral) with aiptasia on it into that environment, the results are far for effective.

Crazy Rick's · Nov 2, 2009

benny z said:
+1

if you overfeed, they may not be as prone to eat the aiptasia, but i have used them many times with great success.

We've used and sold peppermint shrimp for over 20 years, and have successfully used them along with JJ, Kalk paste etc many times to control aiptasia. For some applications however, tanks with shrimp predators as an example, often a copperband butterfly, or even silver scats do a great job as well.

Best of luck!

Steve

holdyourlight · Nov 2, 2009

picked up half a dozen peps from Trop and dropped them in the tank and turned the lights of for one day. aiptasia were all gone when i turned the lights back on. i couldnt believe it really worked but it did.

TriMax · Nov 2, 2009

If you use the Copperband Butterfly will he eat other corals. I have a 375g tank. With only two or three aiptasia now, will any of the livestock, bought to eat it, find it before starving?

TheRedOx · Nov 2, 2009

Worked for me, bought one Peppermint and he ate all my aiptasia - about 5 or 6 of them. A couple were fairly sizable and I figured they were too big for him but he got them anyways, took him two days. I think it's important to get the right species of peppermint as to if they will eat them or not, Lysmata Wurdemanni is the one you want.
This image helped when I went to the LFS..
They are:
(A) Lysmata wurdemanni (Gibbes).
(B) Lysmata rathbunae Chace.
(C) Lysmata ankeri new species.
(D) Lysmata boggessi new species.
(E) Lysmata pederseni new species.
(F) Lysmata bahia new species.

revhtree · Nov 2, 2009

TheRedOx said:
Worked for me, bought one Peppermint and he ate all my aiptasia - about 5 or 6 of them. A couple were fairly sizable and I figured they were too big for him but he got them anyways, took him two days. I think it's important to get the right species of peppermint as to if they will eat them or not, Lysmata Wurdemanni is the one you want.
This image helped when I went to the LFS..
They are:
(A) Lysmata wurdemanni (Gibbes).
(B) Lysmata rathbunae Chace.
(C) Lysmata ankeri new species.
(D) Lysmata boggessi new species.
(E) Lysmata pederseni new species.
(F) Lysmata bahia new species.

Nice post and info!

Reeferdood · Nov 2, 2009

SDguy said:
Yes, they do.

Agreed..
CBB's tend to eat them as well... Hit or miss with fishies though..
Aptasia X by Red Sea works well too...

silverbaby · Nov 2, 2009

I had a peppermint shrimp eat aptaisa. Then my clown fish bit it and carried him to the anemone, it was a sad day.....

TriMax · Nov 2, 2009

What will the Lysmata Wurdemanni eat after they finish off the aiptasia?

TheRedOx · Nov 2, 2009

TriMax said:
What will the Lysmata Wurdemanni eat after they finish off the aiptasia?

They're good scavengers like other shrimp, mostly uneaten food. I feed a mixture of flakes, pellets, Rod's Food and Brine Shrimp and he comes out with everyone else at feeding time gathering up whatever he can get, gets along with my skunk cleaner okay, so far he's been a good addition. I've heard they can start nipping at corals but, from what I've read, I think it's those guys with the black tails in the above picture that are the real trouble with that sort of thing.

TriMax · Nov 2, 2009

I will try the Lysmata Wurdemanni. I will get some tonight or tomorrow.

Thanks for the help.

iceman0124 · Nov 2, 2009

Peps will go after smaller aips only, larger ones will need other measures, how bad is the problem? I lost my first reef due to aips and am very careful now, I always add rock slowly and chip off aiptasia when possible, its not always possible and a pep shrimp is great to finish up and to get rid of tiny hitchikers when you start adding corals.