Aiptasia and Peppermint Shrimp

[L76]

I have a minor outbreak of aiptaisia. I have heard that peppermint shrimp will eat aiptaisia. Is this true? I so, are peppermint shrimp aggressive toward other anemone species (e.g. BTA, ritteri, sebae anemone, etc.?) or corals?

thx,
-d

 

[Anonymous]

I have had nothing but wonderful success with peppermints eating aiptasia, both when I had my 75 gallon and my 180 gallon.

I would definitely recommend attempting a natural remedy before adding chemicals to your tank.

What size is the tank?

Peace,

Chip

 

[ChrisRD]

I've always had good success with Peppermints too although I'm not sure how effective they are against really large aptasia (I just kalk-nuke the big ones).

Personally, I've never seen them bother other anemone species or corals, but like any crustacean, they are opportunistic feeders and will steal food from other animals - especially sessile inverts. IME if you have a sessile invert that needs to be target fed it's usually easier to give a bunch to the shrimp first. It keeps them preoccupied and buys some time for the intended invert to feed...

 

[L76]

Thanks Guys. I am working with a 15g nanocube. Aiptaisia are very small and dispersed throughout my live rock. Only fish is a small maroon clown. I am in process of building a mini reef with a small BTA as my main display. If it gets too big, I'll tranfer it to my 55g tank. Just wanted to make sure peppermint shrimp would not eat my BTA.

-d

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Guys. I am working with a 15g nanocube. Aiptaisia are very small and dispersed throughout my live rock. Only fish is a small maroon clown. I am in process of building a mini reef with a small BTA as my main display. If it gets too big, I'll tranfer it to my 55g tank. Just wanted to make sure peppermint shrimp would not eat my BTA.

-d

I have 5 peppermint shrimp in my tank with my BTA and they never even nipped at it.