will peppermint shrimp eat aiptasia?

[new reefer 03]

I am thinking about getting 2 peppermints and putting them in, are they hard to catch if they misbehave? i am finding aiptasias all over now
do any other reef safe creatures eat aiptasias??

i also injected my aiptasias with calium ( tech cb part a )...
dont waiste your time, i think they grew lol. so i need to know if peppermint are hard to catch? i think im going to get some, i cant stand these aipsasias!!
any other aiptasia eaters!??

 

[BigJay]

They are not super hard to catch. Usually if they are in a group they are even easier since they tend not to be as shy.
The problem is they can do damage to your tank inhabitants in a short while. So you throw two in and everything is fine for a couple days then you wake up one day and your nem is toast. So you don't have a hard time rounding them up but really why bother the damage has already been done.

 

[seafansar]

I've used boiling fresh water with some good results. I inject the aiptasia with a hypodermic needle. If they are in an easy place to reach, it works pretty well. I have one aiptasia that live on the underside of a rock. Every time I try to inject it, it just retracts and I can't get to it. If you kill them, you'll know by the next day. They kinda turn to mush and turn white, and you can siphon them out then too if you want. Good luck!

 

[new reefer 03]

i dont understand the boiling fresh water thing...
what happens if joes juice get all over my tank? what can that do in doses ? will that screw up my tank at all, there are GSPs, Xenias, and Polyps by all of my aiptasias.

 

[leahski]

personally, i love joes juice. i even did everything wrong: left my pumps running, accidently squirted some in the water collumn before getting to the nem, everything. and in an eight gallon tank.
and yet, my aptaisa went bye bye and everything else was perfectly happy by morning (including the yellow polyps that got a good blast of it).

but i am also prejudiced against peppermints. apparently there are subspecies? some will eat aptasia, some won't. and one went evil and decimated a couple of my mushrooms!
evil beings.
i'd be careful if you don't have huge healthy colonies of softies...

and i wouldn't be afraid of joe.

 

[new reefer 03]

thanks! i guess i will go ahead and try my last resort... chemicals ( Joes Juice )

 

[Dentoid]

As with any natural control, it's unpredictable that peppermint shrimp will control an aiptasia population. They will, in all likelihood, eat the smaller ones and leave the more mature ones alone.

I believe the active ingredient in Joe's Juice is citric acid, so just like using lemon juice, too much will lower your pH. If you have a large population, don't try to kill them all at once. Spread it out over a few days to weeks.

 

[new reefer 03]

i just used joes juice, maybe used 1-2ml then diluted it with my water alot. it worked well, i have done them twice, i may try a third time just to make sure its all good.
so far, i have had a great response to this. i will update in the morning

 

[redseareef]

What works really good is lime juice in a syringe. It killed mine instantly. Just inject them like Joe's juice. ALOT CHEAPER TOO!!! And, never bothered any of my corals.
If you inject them into the side of the body, it pretty much kills them instantly!

 

[new reefer 03]

injecting them is the trick though :
i fed them 3 times, twice yesterday once this morning, then a nice 10
% water change.
there may be 5 oe so visible ones, but ill deal with them when they reproduce.

 

[Luukosian]

All of my small apstasia were gone a week after adding 2 peppermints. I think they are one of the funnest things to watch in my tank because they sway back and forth and look like they are dancing.

Every time I stick my hand in the tank they come up on my hand and clean under my fingernails...feels wierd. I ussually try to scare them away though...not sure whats all under my nails...ew..lol.

Haven't seen them picking at my corals ever....the coral banded shrimp likes to pinch all my softies though but he never hurts them.

 

[BigJay]

kind of drifting off topic but they are most likely cleaning all the dead skin around your nails. There have been some spas that have tried using cleaner shrimps to do manicures and pedicures. Not sure how they worked out.
Skunk cleaner shrimp , candy canes and pretty much any of the cleaner species of fish will clean the dead skin.

 

[leahski]

i love shrimp manicures. my sexies always did a great job!

 

[new reefer 03]

lol
i thought this thread was dead, now we are discussing manicures??

 

[CobrajetMach1]

Ok... back on topic for a min, cuz I gotta give my 3 peppermint shrimp their props. I had a bunch of aiptasia, and after a futile stint with aiptasia-X, I bought these guys to see if they could handle it. WOW today there's NO aiptasia that I can see anywhere. In just a month they've cleaned house and got those suckers under wraps. I hardly see the shrimp, when I do it's mostly during their night ops, but their presence is definitely felt for sure. Big thumbs up for the Peppermints!

 

[reefornot2reef]

You have to get the ones from Floridia