Experience with peppermint shrimp for aiptasia?

[AcroNem]

As a professional it's hard to admit sometimes, and it was a first for me having this many Aiptasia. It's always been a few easily dealt with here and there with peppermints. But life/medical/family stuff got it in the way for a while, most projects and systems were maintained but one of my systems got neglected, my 150. Corals and fish were fine but otherwise taken over by Aiptasia, I mean everywhere that wasn't coral was covered. I decided I was done with that, and added a whole bunch (20) of small peppermints from reeftopia, which are the best kind to eat Aiptasia and I haven't had them mess with corals, at least not while there's Aiptasia to eat. Let them be for about a month while they mowed them down. There's some patches of larger nems left that I can see getting smaller and smaller daily. The shrimp are quite large now but the most I counted was 9 a couple nights ago. I plan on trapping them all out once the Aiptasia is visibly gone as I do not want to deal with them eating corals (as they usually do once Aiptasia is gone) when their job is finished. I also have a small Klein's butterfly on standby in a quarantine as a backup that I'll likely be selling now. Overall, peppermints are a good choice so long as they come from the right area/ are the right species, but you should be prepared to catch/trap them out as they can cause issues when nems are gone.

 

[Wee Mad Arthur]

For some reason my 2 have stopped doing much since adding some banded Trochus snails. I’ve hardly seen them for a week or more until today and it shows as the aiptasia population has increased again. I’ve actually got 4 more coming as I’ve read they prefer to be in groups.

 

[Simply__J]

Only thing that works for me are peppermint shrimp. Never had them pick at coral bit I also feed the one I have reef roids from time to time.

 

[Micaeltercer]

I bought one for $3 and it ate my Ultra Maxima Clam. And no, it was not a camelback but a peppermint.

 

[eric.tech]

Had a few Aiptasia in my fuge, popped 2 peppermints in and by the next day the pesky Aiptasia were lunch! Now they’ll get fed and left I’m my sump as my hawk fish has very expensive taste when it comes to shrimp lol.

 

[CEReefer]

Anyone has experience with the Algaebarn/ORA peppermint shrimps?

 

[BobbyCline]

Tried and didn't work should be an option.

 

[CEReefer]

Tried and didn't work should be an option.

What do you mean?

 

[theMeat]

What do you mean?

This thread has a poll, which doesn’t include the above, and should

 

[Gail Allen]

I have some aiptasia popping up around my tank and irritating some of my corals. I have heard both good and bad things about using peppermint shrimp for aiptasia eradication, the only reason I have not already done it is because I’ve heard they like to pick at corals as well. Just trying to get an idea of people’s experience with this both good and bad, please share your opinion.

Hi, I have 2 tanks and each has peppermint shrimp. I had a horrible aptasia outbreak and everyone said to get a group of peps, it was only real remedy, as aptasia are a delicacy for them. Big problem, at that time no one could get peppermint shrimp bc of hurricanes so I tried every other remedy; each one making the situation worse. I tried nudibranchs but they died twice in shipping. When the shrimp became available my tank was 100% free of my nemesis-aptasia. who were in the sand, on the glass, heater, rocks, growing all over my Kenya’s and other corals. I had 100+ big obvious ones and 3 days after I put 3 peppermint shrimp in I couldn’t find a single aptasia . I have a few in my other tank just bc I like them and have never had a problem with them snacking on my corals. After feedings they gently pick food and detritus out of my corals but have never picked at the corals. They’re a colorful, interesting addition to a clean up crew. Go for it. They social and prefer to be in a group so get at least 3 more if your tank can support them once they eradicate your pesky problem.

 

[piranhaman00]

Peppermint shrimp will eat lps before aiptasia

 

[Ian U]

I bought a peppermint shrimp from my LFS a few months ago for this exact purpose. The very first thing he did when I put him in was find a hole to hide in. The very next thing he did was make a snack of the tips of my green torch polyps. The next morning I saw this.

It's the look of sheer horror on the clowns face for me! It looks like it's going to need therapy after witnessing the gruesome incident....