Will PEPPERMINT SHRIMP work?

[rooksy]

Ok I have 4 Aiptasia in my take I just ordered a pepperment shrimp. Will he take care of my problem?

 

[javajoe]

I had one Aiptasia in my tank, and in about 2 eeks it spread to abotu 10-20.
Last night i bough 3 peppermint shrimp, and was told that it'll take a few weeks for them to find and eat them, but they are ALL GONE this morning!
So- they worked for me!

 

[kimmisue]

you don't list how large your tank is but I will tell you with my 55 I have 5. They keep it aptasia free.
Kim

 

[bentrue]

what is aiptasia? what does it look like? apparently it is a bad thing to have.

 

[jtoliver]

peppermint shrimp are the real deal. I had about 40 small aptasia in my 37 reef, 1 peppermint and a couple of weeks later and no more aptasia.

 

[fred the fish guy]

BenTrue,
Aiptasia are actually a small type of anemone that can reproduce at a very rapid rate. They reproduce by themselves so it only takes one to infest your entire tank.
They are bad because of their sting which can injure and kill all coral that touch it. They are small and mushroom like, and a pinkish lightbrown color.

 

[fred the fish guy]

Rooksy,
You may depending on your experience with harder to keep fish try a butterfly. Many butterflies will eat them as well. My personal choice would be with a yellow longnose or copperband since sometimes you can get away with having these in a reef. But for the easy way out the shrimp hafta be the way to go. But hey if you where thinking of a butterfly in the future maybe you should try one of those as well.

 

[fshhub]

do a little research first, be able to distinguish between peppermint and camelbacks first, tehy are easy to tell apart, but most lfs's do not know the difference and sometimes will sell c-backs as peppemints, camel backs can be very destructive with inverts, including other shrimp, and don't always work for aptaisia