Peppermint shrimp
- Thread starter ssc
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ChimolaFish
New member
Yes, they will eat small aptasia. If it gets too big, they'll ignore it. They can be picky and not eat it sometimes, but they're one of the few creatures that will eat it. By the way, they are social creatures so you should consider getting at least 3 instead of one. It's cruel to keep one by itself. Plus, they'll be more efficient. They will require feeding on their own when the aptasia is gone also, and since they don't eat algae, you should consider shrimp or as mine love, small bits of squid. They're nocturnal, so you won't see them all the time, but with time they may come out during the day. Their antics can be kinda funny, I enjoy mine when I see them.
Fallling
New member
Maybe. For some people, they work. For myself, they haven't worked, but I feed heavily so they might be getting enough food from that. Make sure you get the true peppermint shrimp, Lysmata wurdemanni, if you do try. There are other shrimp that look VERY similar to peppermints but don't eat aptasia.
ChimolaFish
New member
Fish that eat shrimp will certainly go after them. Reef safe fish won't. Like the other guy said make sure they are true peppermints.
Saltliquid
New member
Peps, that are a lysmata type of shrimp, boy and girl in one, eat anything; they are small animal eaters, pure and simple, that being if other food isn’t laid on. This includes small shedding red line shrimp, small fish, shedding anemone crabs and so on. They may also eat small mushroom coral flesh and pick the flesh out of other coral types, that is if you are unlucky! There are tons of them down the road from home and I see how they live!
Spar
New member
i always had good luck personally. i would add 6 or more at a time. if you can get one to eat the pests then the others will learn how themselves. IME anyway.
i added 6 to my DT recently. the first one i added got torn up on its way down to the rock work. the other 5 made it. unfortunate for the one, but once added and the shrimp were in the rock work, the fish seem to ignore them. lesson learned... escort the shrimp to the rocks, not just drop them in like i did.
i added 6 to my DT recently. the first one i added got torn up on its way down to the rock work. the other 5 made it. unfortunate for the one, but once added and the shrimp were in the rock work, the fish seem to ignore them. lesson learned... escort the shrimp to the rocks, not just drop them in like i did.
Spiffy
Cheesy Poofs!
I picked up 4 of them a while back to take care of my aiptasia problem and they took of care of the problem in about 4 days. I haven't seen a single aiptasia since then. Sadly, none of the shrimp survived longer then 3 months. They all died off one at a time. And my ocellaris clowns took out my Fire Shrimp... 
Kearnel
New member
I've had my 3 little guys for over a year, there are times where weeks will go by without a trace of them then I'll see a shell from a molt. I'll go on the hunt for them at night and sure enough they all pop up. I never feed em or anything, just leave em to scrounge up whatever they come across. When I offer pellets to the fish I do try and throw some towards the back so it'll sink down into the rock work.
Tomtopping
New member
I got peppermint shrimp for same reason I dumped them in out of the bag and they never touched the sand bed went right after aiptasia cleaned it up in no time
triggreef
New member
Yikes watch out with the file fish. I've seen one of the most beautiful displays I ever saw consumed by one that was added for the same purpose; and the aiptasia are still there.
The shrimp may or may not work. If you like to target feed your corals forget it. The shrimp will target the corals catches and let other chunks float by them only to grab the rest of what the coral caught. I had one eat a very nice yuma that I had as well. For whatever reason it decided it want that one yuma.
There are some aiptasia eating butterfly fish you can look into as well. Hit or miss also and they host their own dangers.
My suggestion would be lemon juice. Turn off all water flow, load up a syringe, pole the crap out of them and let them soak in a partial ml of lemon juice for a few minutes. Turn pumps back on. Don't do more than a couple at a time depending on your volume of tank water. That has worked well for me in the past but I never had an out of control problem just a couple here and there.
Do a bunch of reading, and make an informed decision. There are thousands of similar threads as this.
The shrimp may or may not work. If you like to target feed your corals forget it. The shrimp will target the corals catches and let other chunks float by them only to grab the rest of what the coral caught. I had one eat a very nice yuma that I had as well. For whatever reason it decided it want that one yuma.
There are some aiptasia eating butterfly fish you can look into as well. Hit or miss also and they host their own dangers.
My suggestion would be lemon juice. Turn off all water flow, load up a syringe, pole the crap out of them and let them soak in a partial ml of lemon juice for a few minutes. Turn pumps back on. Don't do more than a couple at a time depending on your volume of tank water. That has worked well for me in the past but I never had an out of control problem just a couple here and there.
Do a bunch of reading, and make an informed decision. There are thousands of similar threads as this.
My peppermint shrimp did take care of aiptasia, but once they ate all that, they went for my Duncan and hammer head. I caught them eating the hammer head and immediately banished them to the sump, everything is much happier without them. I would have rather spared myself all that work and simply used the syringe method.
