Aptasia on the attack.

[Mandarin333]

I have aptasia breeding despite trying to remove them by hand so I bought 2
peppermint shrimp in the hopes of them eating the pests. No luck yet. Anyone
got any ideas. I've read some time ago that folks inject them with a solution.
What do you inject them with? TIA -M333

[John]

I've heard about Joe's Juice, but I havent tried it so I cant comment on it
personally.
~John

[Pszemol]

"Mandarin333" > wrote in message ...
> I have aptasia breeding despite trying to remove them by hand so I bought
> 2 peppermint shrimp in the hopes of them eating the pests. No luck yet.
> Anyone got any ideas.

Peppermint shrimps will work. Be more patient! Aiptasia will not disappear
overnight... Having a fish tank requires A LOT of patience... :-))

Depending on how big is your tank and how many aiptasia polyps you have
two shrimps may be an army simply not big enough. They will consume
aiptasia not fast enough to outcompete aiptasia multiplication...
Also, the size of the shrimp is important. If you got two small ones
their stomachs will not make any dent in a large aiptasia population...
If you can, buy more shrimps than you need and arrange returning them
after their job is done for a store credit.

At the end, peppermint shrimps will prefer smaller polyps and avoid
touching big ones and huge ones - you will have to remove them manually.
Manual removal is hopeless if you do not have an ally inside the tank to
fight with the small offspring aiptasia growing in every rock crevice.
In the places you cannot reach with your hand try to remove rock and
clean it from the aiptasia out of the tank, rinsing destroyed aiptasia
tissue with water to not leave any tissue residue because it will grow back.

Be patient and treat it as an process, not an overnight thing...
Good luck.

[robin.gordon1]

you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours (crab problem). I used boiling
water from a kettle directly injected into the anemone or into it's hole.
the last couple I had went this way and within a few seconds small plumes of
white material came out of the holes around it and hey presto one dead
aptasia.
HTH.

Robin

[Kevin & Donna Sanders, M.D.]

Maybe they are not hungry because they are eating other things like flake
food . I had aptasia for a couple of years and when they started getting to
thick I got some peppermint shrimp and they completely eradicated them
"Mandarin333" > wrote in message
...
> I have aptasia breeding despite trying to remove them by hand so I bought
2
> peppermint shrimp in the hopes of them eating the pests. No luck yet.
Anyone
> got any ideas. I've read some time ago that folks inject them with a
solution.
> What do you inject them with? TIA -M333

[Benjamin Slade]

I've used Joe's Juice with moderate success. It definitely hurts the
aptasia, but they come back sometimes. You have to turn off the water
circulation and make sure you get a dose right into the middle of the
aptasia.

My experience with the peppermint shrimp is both of the following:

* They'll eat other food if it's around
* They're more likely to eat an aptasia if it's damaged (this is really
just a pet theory of mine)

Good luck

Ben in DC

(append 030516 to the subj to bypass spam filters)
"It's the mark of an educated mind to be moved by statistics"
Oscar Wilde


Mandarin333 wrote:
> I have aptasia breeding despite trying to remove them by hand so I bought 2
> peppermint shrimp in the hopes of them eating the pests. No luck yet. Anyone
> got any ideas. I've read some time ago that folks inject them with a solution.
> What do you inject them with? TIA -M333

[news.east.earthlink.net]

Get a few more 3-4 peppermint shrimp for 90 gallon tank, not babies.
They have completely eliminated them from my main tank...they still grow
in sump but I don't care unless they are in the main tank. My
peppermints are like an army on a mission...they hunt those suckers down
and gone...

Mandarin333 wrote:
> I have aptasia breeding despite trying to remove them by hand so I bought 2
> peppermint shrimp in the hopes of them eating the pests. No luck yet. Anyone
> got any ideas. I've read some time ago that folks inject them with a solution.
> What do you inject them with? TIA -M333

[Mandarin333]

>Subject: Re: Aptasia on the attack.
>From: "robin.gordon1"
>Date: 8/17/04 5:44 AM Eastern Daylight Time
>Message-id: >
>
>you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours (crab problem). I used boiling
>water from a kettle directly injected into the anemone or into it's hole.
>the last couple I had went this way and within a few seconds small plumes of
>white material came out of the holes around it and hey presto one dead
>aptasia.
>HTH.

I had thought of trying this before. My only concern was that some of the
pests were too near other valuable specimens. Actually, I looked for them
yesterday. There were seven visible aptasia and now I can see zero. I think
the shrimp had a snack. :) --M333

[PaulB]

There are two different types of Peppermint shrimps, not to mention the fact
that camel shrimps are sometimes misidentified as Peppermints.

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

Mine eat Aiptasia right away. I have none in the tank where the peppermints
can get at them.


Do a search on Google and you can find more.
"Mandarin333" > wrote in message
...
>I have aptasia breeding despite trying to remove them by hand so I bought 2
> peppermint shrimp in the hopes of them eating the pests. No luck yet.
> Anyone
> got any ideas. I've read some time ago that folks inject them with a
> solution.
> What do you inject them with? TIA -M333
>

[Dori K.]

My husband is having this problem in his 20-gallon tank and we had a
bear of a time finding a solution because we also have a red choris
wrasse who would have eaten peppermint shrimp had we tried that.

We finally got a black and white banded butterfly a couple of days ago
and he's already kicking ass in there. Plus he's pretty.

Just wanted to post this to help anybody else out because I know he
got a lot of information about this problem from usenet.

- Dori