how many peppermint shrimp?

[brian.julia07]

I want to put some peppermint shrimp in my tank to help an aptasia problem its 29 gallons can i put more than one in there or how many is safe? thanks

 

[sufunk]

I tried single pep's and they never did anything for aiptasia. Someone at my lfs told me that one is hit or miss so add a bunch and they will definitely take care of your aiptasia. I put 10 in my 180g and at least some of them were working because my aiptasia was gone within a few weeks.

For a 29g, i would do about 3-5 planning on taking most or all out once the aiptasia was gone. They key though is to make sure they dont have any other food source,imo. I put them in after my tank had cycled but before i added any fish and didnt feed them a thing until the aiptasia was gone. If they can find other food, they very well may ignore the aiptasia no matter how many you put in.

 

[Mark426]

Thats all correct. I will add...get RID of them after your are sure the aiptasia are long gone. They become the most evil creatures you can have in your reef.

 

[sufunk]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12767092#post12767092 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mark426
Thats all correct. I will add...get RID of them after your are sure the aiptasia are long gone. They become the most evil creatures you can have in your reef.

I agree they are EVIL!!! If you have corals that you spot feed, they are the worst thing you could have in your tank! They will steal the food and even if you guard it for an hour and the coral has seemingly completely swallowed the food, they will dig in and rip out the food stressing and injuring the corals.

I had the sweetest aussie scolymia that they did this to and it never ate again and slowly died. Mine all died off from a redbug treatment and my aiptasia has been reintroduced to my tank but i will not put in peppermints again. As much as i hate them, i'm going with a copperbanded butterfly this time and see how he works.

 

[brian.julia07]

thanks for the suggestions

 

[Chibils]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12767128#post12767128 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sufunk
I agree they are EVIL!!! If you have corals that you spot feed, they are the worst thing you could have in your tank! They will steal the food and even if you guard it for an hour and the coral has seemingly completely swallowed the food, they will dig in and rip out the food stressing and injuring the corals.

I had the sweetest aussie scolymia that they did this to and it never ate again and slowly died. Mine all died off from a redbug treatment and my aiptasia has been reintroduced to my tank but i will not put in peppermints again. As much as i hate them, i'm going with a copperbanded butterfly this time and see how he works.

Catch them when they steal the food! :lmao:

I have 3 in my 90G and my aiptasia hasn't been touched. I'm not too concerned, though, because it doesn't spread so much.

 

[Sitarangi]

honestly ive had alot of luck my peppermints. I had 3 at one time for one 'iffy' LFS. They cured my aiptasia problem and were fun to watch. Mysteriously one by one they all died of wierd circumstances. One waddled around like it had a broken leg and keeled over and died, on I found dead, and one I couldn't find at all. My aipstasia came back in full force so I bought one more peppermint about a week ago and hes doing great.

 

[lawboy888]

i have a bunch in my 240 and the corals are fine...all aptasia are gone except for maybe 1 or 2.

 

[rssjsb]

In a smaller tank like yours, it's fairly easy to make sure they have a big chunk of meaty food to keep them busy so you can feed your corals.