Killing my Aiptasia

[divemasterjim]

Ok im tired of these guys all over my tank, so I took a spoon full of Mrs. Wages and placed it on a small jar, added some RODI water, shook for about a minute till I had a thick milky white substance. I then took a syringe with a long needle and filled it with the liquid and proceeded to feed the aiptasia. So far they look like they are dying!! I will update later. I stopped my kalk drip for now since the extra concentrated kalk that may be in the water.

[divemasterjim]

ok about 6 hours later no signs of the ones I pickled and just started my kalk drip again although I didnt test the CA or AK

[Overstocker]

I wonder if you have real peppermint shrimp. They love aiptasia, 2 of them ate about ten good sized ones in one night and finished the others of the next night.

[XXFirefighter]

Joes Juice worked for me...
I had a liller banded coral shrimp that murdered my pepps..

[divemasterjim]

my peppermint just seem to hide under the same rock, all 3 of them, they never seem to move.
and I read joes juice is basically the same thing as mrs wages just something else added to it

[Sparky]

My Peppermint shrimp also took care of the Aiptrasia I had. The very next day after I put them in. There is another shrimp I read about that resembles the Peppermint Shrimp very closely, I forgot what it was called but the article said alot of LFS will mis-identfy these two and you may have ended up with the other. If you have corals in your tank, (I didn't see any listed in your Sig) this "other" shrimp will eat at them.

Mike

[Sparky]

I found this. I hope this may help a little.


Peppermint Shrimp are opaque to creamy-clear in color, with red or maroon colored stripes running along the length of the body. Often misidentified or misrepresented and sold as the Camelback Shrimp (Rhynchocienetes uritai), this two species are NOT the same and should not be confused. This is the only TRUE Peppermint Shrimp.
It will grow to a length of about 2 inches, and is commonly collected in the Caribbean.



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Characteristics
Don Carner said that he had some of these shrimp for years in his reef tank and never experienced ANY predatory problems with keeping them. The TRUE Peppermint Shrimp will NOT eat corals, but the Camelback, that is often mislabeled as this shrimp, will!
Peppermint Shrimp are nocturnal and very shy during the day, protecting themselves from THEIR own predators by staying out of sight most of the time. However, at night when the big boys are napping, this shrimp forages the system looking for a meal.

The Lysmata wurdemanni is generally peaceful with other tank inhabitants, but may not get along well with Coral Banded Shrimp of the same sex, and may pick on other shrimp species as well.

To help with proper molting of this shrimp, supplemental iodine should be added to the system. Like with all invertebrates, this shrimp is sensitive to copper sulfate and high nitrate levels.



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Diet
The Peppermint Shrimp is a carnivore, scavenging the bottom of the aquarium, and sifting sand for food. In captivity it will accept a varied diet of prepared fresh and frozen foods suitable for carnivores, vitamin enriched flakes, freeze dried krill, or live adult brine shrimp or nauplii. Best fed at least once per day.
This shrimp is known for eating aiptasia anemones! It eat them like candy! Place 3 or 4 to a tank to really clean up infestations. Once all the anemones are gone though, you must provide food for them. Don't allow the aiptastia to grow larger than an inch or so, because the shrimp won't go after really large ones. Add the shrimp early on in the beginnings of the reef, after cycling of course! This will help to keep the anemones from over running the tank in the first place!

Mike

[revhtree]

I believe the Camel shrimp is the one who confuses some of being a peppermint. I could be wrong though. Anybody know if I am right or wrong?

[divemasterjim]

found this info on a web page

Both Rhynchocinetidae sp and Lysmata wurdemanni will eat aiptasias. Rhynchocinetidae sp. will also eat corals and is not suitable for a reef tank. There have also been reports of L. wurdemanni eating the polyps on small polyp sceleractinians.

[divemasterjim]

Rhynchocinetes Durbanensis or Camelback Shrimp or Fake Peppermint Shrimp