Aiptasia and the Peppermint shrimp...

I have had a recent outbreak in small aiptasia and I read on the web that peppermint shrimp eat them. The only problem with me getting them if they do eat aiptasia, is whether or not my blood red fire shrimp would eat him or fight with him. Would they fight and do peppermints eat aiptasia?

Thanks

 

Yes, they do eat aiptasia, but theres a small catch to that theory. They will eat it if theres nothing else to eat. What I mean by this is, if they are being fed by the food that is left over from the fish/corals, will will not touch the aiptasia. Whats the loop-hole around this, is to buy 4-6 depending on the size of your tank. I get like 5-6 of them in my 90g tank. Luna

 

I think it depends on the shrimp actually. I've heard some chow down on them, some won't touch the stuff. The best way to get one to eat an aiptasia is to make him really hungry. Which is hard to do if you still have other critters to feed and he scrambles for the leftovers.

We didn't have much luck with pep shrimp. We ordered 3, one died on the trip over from Cali, one died after being put in the tank, and one lasted a while until we got a pistol shrimp He went MIA a long time ago and haven't seen him since.

We have had outstanding results with Joe's Juice. I've had shrimp and fish eat the stuff in the water and they're amazingly healthy and normal, but then it makes aiptasia dissappear in 5-10 seconds. I would recommend going with that route.

 

I have two peppermint shrimp and since I put them in my tank there has not been one aptasia.

 

I bought a peperment and nothing happed I don't even see him all that much.

 

aptaisia

No one seems to have answered your question about blood shrimp. I have one and have two peppermint shrimp. The blood shrimp does not love the peppermints and if they get close together he is testy but when the lights are off the peppermints are all over the place and devouring aptaisia. You just have to get the big ones with joe's juice or blue vet aptaisia control. the peppermints won't eat anything bigger than a half inch or so. otherwise two peppermints are completely contolling aptaisia in my little 30 gallon reef tank.

 

I got two for my 90g tank. My outbreak of aiptasia was not that bad. It took a week, but I got up one day and all but one of the aiptasia was gone. The remaining one I injected with homemade Joe's Juice and I haven't seen one since. I also have not seen the P-shrimp in about a month. They are nocturnal, so that is a possibility. The other possibility is they are dead. However....there are still no aiptasia.....which leads me to believe they are alive and well.

 

I had a terrible outbreak of aptasia years ago. I put about 8 peppermint shrimp in my 75 gal tank with my two blood shrimp and did not have a problem. The peppermint shrimp don't live a long time anyway. They really cleaned up the aptasia!

 

Different food usually means they won't fight. They're both pretty tame shrimp as well. Friend of mine has a peppermint shrimp and he LOVES aptasia - it would eat it before the tank food. Weird little guy. GL!

 

I have heard so many different stories with the peppermint shrimp. Some say it works fine on small aiptaisia, but not on larger pieces; others say it didn't work for them at all. But nearly everyone I know who has tried Joe's Juice loves it. If the peppermint shrimp works great; but if not, the Joe's Juice will get rid of the aiptaisia, large or small.