Absolutely stunning top downs, Bulent!
Perfection.
What's that blue acro? I think I have a piece. It's got the best blue colour in the reeding world next to an Oregon Tort.
I am amazed at the growth or your sermantosa. Not to mention the nice pink tips that were eluding you at first, if I recall.
I had to give up all my lps and clams to accommodate my filefish. So I know how you feel.
In my experience, peppermints only work when there is no fish in your set up. This is because they need to be really hungry to eat aiptasia, which is not possible when you feed your fish. I have also observed that peppermints works as a pack. They also attacked the polyps of Pocillapora damicornis.
Filefish also nip at Acro polyps. Mine nipped at Acropora aspera when it was hungry, but did not cause any permanent damage.
Maybe it depends on the type of peppermint..
This has not been my experience at all with my carribean origin peppermints.
They do not stay in packs and they love to eat aptasia even when the tank is being fed heavily.
I find mine to be mostly solitary. They will tolerate each other when a snail dies or when I add new corals- they will come out to investigate but will quickly disperse again behind the rocks.
About two years ago, when I had a rampant infestation of aptasia (and the beginnings of aefw, that I was not yet aware of) I added close to 50 peppermints to my 200 gallon tank. Within 6 weeks, there was not a trace of aptasia in the tank. Today, I cannot find one indication of aefw anywhere in my system. I keep peppermints in both my display and my frag tank.
They have also never touched my ponape birds nest.
But I have seen some peppermints eat out the centre of birds nest corals.. I assume it was peppermints from a different region of the world.
