How many peppermint shrimp?

[dnh]

I have a 30 gallon tank I bought from a neighbor with lots of LR and live sand. It has been running for about 4 years at their house. I have had it running for about two weeks with few problems, other than the fact that the previous owner though aiptasia looked nice.
I did a huge aiptasia kill with Joe's Juice last week, and I killed every one I could find. Of course, I found four the next day that I missed. I suctioned all the dead bodies out that I could get, but I still went through the expected ammonia spike. Now that all the numbers are back to normal, I put in two peppermint shrimp. They don't seem really hungry yet, but I'm just guessing they are still getting used to their new surroundings and that their appetite will kick in any day.
The aiptasia is once again everywhere. Will two peppermints be enough once they start eating, or should I plan to get some more to finally knock this stuff out?

 

[elfdoctors]

Two peppermints in my 75 took care of my aiptasia.
Two notes to think about. 1) I have heard that they sometimes will only eat the smaller ones. You may have to treat the large ones again if this happens. 2) There are actually two species of peppermint shrimp which look nearly identical. One of them eats aiptasia. The other doesn't seem to eat it. The ones from this website seem to eat the aiptasia but may also eat some colony polyps.
Welcome to the Boards!

 

[viet-tin]

you can also try copper band butterfly fish. Theyll eat aiptasia also.

 

[stapler]

The butterfly would be too big for a 30g. Would just go with the peppermint shrimp.

 

[dnh]

Thanks for the responses! If I did get real peppermints:
1) will they wonder around during the day eating the aiptasia, or are they nocturnal?
2) should they be eating the aptasia already or do they take a few days to get acclimated before they feel comfortable enough to come out from under the LR?