Help rid tank of aptasia!(age old question.any new answers?)

[lynn53]

Very funny Matt! .., I wouldn't mind trying the peppermint shrimp though, but I'm worried about my zoo's. I have oodles of them and some of those beautiful hot pink ones that I'd hate to lose. I'm going to do a search on that but unless they are 100% safe I'll not try them.
The weird thing about this is that I used Joes' juice and let it out really slowly with a syringe right into their mouths. If you do it slowly they seem to almost consume it. Then I didn't see them for about two weeks and thought I had got them. All of a sudden I've got a outbreak...probably at least double of what I had. It's like they consumed the stuff, but before dieing let loose a bunch of spores or something. The one side of the tank is built into the wall and they are very very hard to get at. It's a 180 and is seven years old so there is no way of removing any rock at all. I probably have 30 or so.
thank guys for all the help though!!!

 

[lynn53]

Well there is definitely some discrepancy on wetwebmedia about pepperment shrimp.

(When the Aiptasia are gone, the shrimp will do fine foraging on whatever they find and are very rarely a threat to sessile invertebrates. Occasionally, they will steal food from corals but it is almost unheard of for them to actually do any damage. Best Regards. AdamC> )

The next one says this:

(Be forewarned that after the peppermints eat all your Aiptasia they may eat everything else. So you may get stuck with them down the road, looking for a way to catch them. >>
<< Adam Blundell >> )

 

[ChrisRD]

I have never actually witnessed true Peppermint Shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni) doing any damage to corals (including zoanthids) other than the food stealing thing, but that is JME. That said, it's very tough to predict the behavior of any given fish/invert as personalities vary...

IMO reports of Peppermint Shrimp not eating aptasia and/or damaging corals may - at least in some cases - be the result of mistaken identity with Camelback Shrimp (Rhynchocinetes durbanensis).

 

[das75]

IMO reports of Peppermint Shrimp not eating aptasia and/or damaging corals may - at least in some cases - be the result of mistaken identity with Camelback Shrimp (Rhynchocinetes durbanensis).

Also L. Rathbunae, looks very much alike and appears to be sold in-place of the true Peppermint and does not eat aptasia. Not sure if they have a fondness for coral.

http://www.reefs.org/library/article/hopkins_redfield.html

 

[brandonberry]

I like mixing a little lye (sodium hydroxide) with the lime to beef it up a little. I then just feed it to them. It pretty much makes the aiptasia dissolve instantly.