Peppermint shrimp for aiptasia
- Thread starter JonV88
- Start date
Felix T Cat
Member
I have tried multiple times with peps from different sources and none of them have ever even made a dent on my aiptasia issue. I added a Filefish tonight and the second he hit the tank he started nipping at an aiptasia I had on the glass.
I'm going to keep a close eye on him and my corals but so far so good.
I'm going to keep a close eye on him and my corals but so far so good.
shermanator
New member
Berghia nudibranches. They only eat aiptasia and they do a good job of it. Only downside is that they are expensive.
davocean
Active member
Usually people add a handful of peps, but even then it's iffy, and then if they pick at things they are tougher to catch.
berghia nudibranchs and matted file fish are other options, both easier to catch if you want to pull them after.
Sometimes hitting apt w/ aptasia X melts them enough to make it easy for eating and encourages the eating of your aptasia.
The combo has worked for me, I have a CBB that took care of my aptasia, but they are a little trickier to keep.
I did not care for peps, they stole food and messed w/ snails.
berghia nudibranchs and matted file fish are other options, both easier to catch if you want to pull them after.
Sometimes hitting apt w/ aptasia X melts them enough to make it easy for eating and encourages the eating of your aptasia.
The combo has worked for me, I have a CBB that took care of my aptasia, but they are a little trickier to keep.
I did not care for peps, they stole food and messed w/ snails.
Mikesmith34
New member
Research reef napalm. It will kill ap's 100%. I've used it to kill undesirable corals as well like xenia and mushrooms
Crooked Reef
Active member
Peps will generally only eat the small ones too. If you have an extreme infestation and large ones they may not even make a noticeable dent. I got lucky and bought two of them that handled my 3 small aiptasia in about 3 or 4 days.
Relativity
New member
I bought 8 berghias and I only saw 1 after four months on the glass. They did nothing to my aptisia population. They have the gut the size of a grain of sand. I think I would need a thousand of them to do anything
Crooked Reef
Active member
The breghais really need to reproduce to be effective. If you just dropped them in and have fish that found them through the night they probably got picked off
Hopefully it is a Caribbean Pep, as they are the only ones that will eat aiptasia ...cut back on feeding your fish for a few days...but don't expect to see the Pep eating the aiptasia, they do their best work at night!
Where did you get the Pep? Max Reefs?
davocean
Active member
From comments I've seen they usually will go for the pests first.
Sometimes they don't bother anything at all, especially if well fed.
If not, easy to catch and pass it along.
No idea what they stock...stopped going there years ago! You should drive to Yonkers to see 20x the inventory at less than 1/2 the price
chris.scang
New member
I recently put 3 peppermint shrimp in my tank to take care of some aptasia and they are doing great work. But like many people have said, don't expect to see them eating the aptasia. The peppermints are nocturnal and will do their best work in the dark.
