will all peppermint shrimp eat aptasia

[855012 reefer]

will they all or are they hit and miss.

 

[Adam_T]

I have 2 that ended up hosting the same damn rock the 2 small aiptasias were growing on, and they didn't pay any attention to them...haha.

I said "no" but I think it is a hit or miss. The thing is, you never know where your peppermints are truly coming from. There are some ppl off of the coast of NC that get theirs straight from the shoreline, and ALL of them eat aiptasia.

Ya never know...*hit or miss*

 

[M88A2]

i had 2 that cleared my 29 tank of aiptasia in 2-3 days. even ones that were similar in size and even a little bigger than the shrimps themselves. i have heard that it is a hit or miss in which case i consider mine a bullseye. make sure to get Lysmata wurdemanni, thats the kind i got and i heard others are look alikes or dont tank to the aiptasia as well.

 

[alcove]

i saw a group of 6 eat a clam once

 

[saltysticks]

My friend used to have store with a peppermint tank(300+) and we would put pieces of live rock that had aptasia on it and it would be clean in seconds. it was awesome.

 

[a.stebel]

There are 2 types of peppermint shrimp. 1 eats apastia, 1 doesn't.

1. Eats Apastia - Lysmata Wurdemanni (from caribbean)

2. Does Not Eat Apastia - Lysmata Californica (from eastern Pacific)

From the Pocket expert guide of Marine Inverts by Ron L. Shimek

 

[BiochemRobyn]

Your usually safest buying a peppermint from someone else who has already observed them eating aptasia. Buying from a fish store seems to be hit or miss.

 

[iamwhatiam52]

We may be asking the wrong question. Perhaps it has more to do with the conditions of your tank than with the shrimp.

I bought 3 that were eating aptasia like starving wolves in the store, but they never touched any in my tank.

Over the years I have tried them 4 times, from different sources, and none have ever molested aptasia.

Perhaps most will eat aptasia under certain conditions, but not eat them under others.

 

[philter4]

will they all or are they hit and miss.

There are several species of peppermint shrimp, two here that are very common, (the peppermint shrimp, Lysmata wurdermanni, and the hidden cleaner shrimp, L. rathbunae)and only one of the Atlantic peppermint shrimp eat aptasia. In the ocean the species that eats aptasia lives under rocks and in groups, the other which is almost identical in color pattern, lives singly in the tubes of sponges (hence the common name hidden cleaner shrimp) and does not eat aptasia.

 

[855012 reefer]

Your usually safest buying a peppermint from someone else who has already observed them eating aptasia. Buying from a fish store seems to be hit or miss.

i live in a very rural area with no reefers. Are there any online stores that any of you have had luck with? How much will the true Lysmata Wurdemanni cost at an lfs? the ones i bought were only $14.

 

[855012 reefer]

how many will i need for a 29 gallon with aproximately 500+ aptasia. If you dont believe me I will post pics.

 

[Nerd1717]

Can you? I want to see now?

And it might be worth getting a nudibranch.

 

[K.Sweeney]

I want to get some.I use an bottle of aptasia-x every two months and costs £14.99 or i get an couple shimps at 15 each. (£1=$1.51 ish)

 

[855012 reefer]

that is my other concern. I may have too much for a peppermint to handle even if i do have the right kind. if i got a nudibranch it would be the berghia?

 

[855012 reefer]

thanks. I found out I had been buying californica.

 

[Chupakabra-King]

I bought two pepermint shrimp to put in my infested 40 breeder. I had hundreds of them . In two weeks all the aiptasia were gone . I may be just lucky but every peppermint I have ever bought ate them with gusto , even the bigger ones. As always YYMV .

 

[arioch]

They're confusing at first but you can identify them with practice. The peppermints I visually identified at the LFS I bought them from were definitely wurdemanni and they definitely cleaned up my biocube. My other tank is another story (the mantis shrimp kept eating the peppermints, I gave up after 2).

 

[AJSTITAN14]

LOL Mantis remind me of the Alien:

Ash: You still don't understand what you're dealing with, do you? The perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility.

Lambert: You admire it.

Ash: I admire its purity. A survivor … unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.

 

[Lyfey]

I had 3 peppies in a 29 gallon biocube and they cleared the tank of around 15 aptasia's in 3 days. One aptasia (the mamma that spawned the others) was the size of a quarter.

I think that the peppies will eat the aptasia if they feel safe, if not they will retreat into the rocks and only scavange. If there are fish, they are very timid. In my biocube I didnt have any fish and therefore I believe they ate everything with gusto!

-Chris