Aptasia controlled with peppermint shrimp

[elwaine]

Who would have believed itââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦ that peppermint shrimp actually eat Aptasia? Not me. Thatââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s for sureââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦ well, almost for sure.

To my chagrin, I discovered a few Aptasia in my37 gallon tank. Not manyââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦ maybe 5 or 6 total. They apparently arrived on a coral frag that I got at my LFS several months back. Well, how to get rid of them was the question. I read about peppermint shrimp eating those pests ââ"šÂ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å“ but I didnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t believe it. So I tried killing them by injecting them with kalkwasser pasteââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦ and then with ââ"šÂ¬Ã…"œStop Aptasia,ââ"šÂ¬Ã‚ from Chem-Marin. Both solutions worked fine. However, I had a few Aptasia in spots that I couldnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t inject easilyââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦ not without damaging some corals, or dismantling part of my reef. And there were two small Aptasia that were housed in the upper and lower halves of a thorny oyster shellââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦ very near the opening of the bi-valveââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦ and how would I ââ"šÂ¬Ã…"œzapââ"šÂ¬Ã‚ the Aptasia without harming the oyster?

So I bought 2 Peppermint Shrimp, on a whim that maybe they really did eat Aptasia. Well, I canââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t swear to it, because I never did see the shrimp eat anything. But now, after 5 days, there are NO Aptasia in my reef aquarium.

 

[L8ndeb]

Yup, I can attest to that as well. Got two of them and presto, no Aptasia (except a couple still in my sump).

 

[nick18tjetta]

I had aptaisia pop up out of nowhere in my 125. NO new additions or anything, and they multiplied like crazy. I zapped them a couple of times with joes juice, ended up using two full bottles. I then bought 6 peps with no luck. Hopefully one day they will get hungry and start eating.

 

[Alaskan Reefer]

Peps don't eat the larger ones -- Joe's (or homebrew kalk paste / serum) is needed for that. Once you knock out the big ones and put in peps, the little ones disappear magically a few per night.