Peppermint shrimp question

[JeremyGlen]

I've heard before that, sometimes, the peppermint shrimp collected at the coast don't do a good job of eating aptasia. Can anyone tell me how well they do?

[villjr]

I got a few from someone who got them at the coast and they ate the aptasia in my dad's tank.

[GaryP]

Sometimes you need to train them to eat aiptasia. You do this by putting them into a quarantine tank and feeding them only aiptasia. They may come from an area that may not have aiptasia in the wild. Sort of like someone from Canada eating menudo for the first time.

[JeremyGlen]

:lol Sounds good. Thanks guys.

[alton]

Gary you could of left out the Menudo thing. Mine did a good job on the Aptaisa and now he eats the fish food I feed, kinda of neat having around. I only have one in my 29.

[caferacermike]

I liked the menudo thing. At least he didn't say Tripas.

[GaryP]

I was going to say haggis, but a lot of people here don't know what that is.

[scuba_steveo]

My peppermints that I got from the coast only eat aptasia. And they do a great job. In my experience, they are the best thing you can add to rid your tank of aptasia. They have never touched any of my four BTAs.

[JeremyGlen]

I'm jacking my own thread now. Thanks for all the great info.

Steve, aren't you running the EVC 14K bulbs on your tank?

[scuba_steveo]

yes...very nice IMO
I tried the hamilton 14k first and really liked the color but switched to see if I could get more PAR. But with 4-400s on a HQI ballast on a 6-foot tank who really needs more PAR? Then I tried to Coralvue Reefflux 12, 13, 14 or whatever it is. I did not like the color as much so I switched to the EVC. So far so good. I really like the Hamiliton 14k too.

[JeremyGlen]

Cool. I like the color you've got going in your tank and the EVCs are much cheaper than the XM 15ks I've been looking at. I wonder what the DE bulb color looks like in the EVC. I hope it is close to the same.

[MikeP]

I was going to say haggis, but a lot of people here don't know what that is.

I had managed to blot out my memories of haggis but alas you have made them return with a vengeance. Scottish 'cuisine' :blink

As for the peppermints - I had a bunch I put in my tank from the gulf a couple years ago - they did ok on the aiptasia but over time my lyretail hawk ate them all - funny to see a 3" fish swimming around with a pair of 3" antenna sticking out of his mouth.

[FireEater]

They may come from an area that may not have aiptasia in the wild.The ones I collect eat aptasia, though we do have it all down here anyway. :o

[hoho19]

I was going to say haggis, but a lot of people here don't know what that is.

Or Poutine for anybody from down here :P Yuck!

[Instar]

The peppermints in my tank kept the aiptasia down but ripped the guts out of my tubastrea as well as all the tunicates and cucumbers in my tank. All the filter feeders in the live rock were removed. They also killed a large sebae anemone. I had to rescue an ultra rose BTA from someone else who had peppermint shrimp too. Once the peppermints were gone, the aiptaisa returned with a vengence. There are many dynamics in a large sps tank with a fuge over 100 gallons and lots of cover when excess fish food can keep all the shrimp happy. In tanks with large predators like lobsters and large brittle stars or large crabs, peppermint shrimp may be the only answer that will work. In tanks with specialized feeders and many soft bodied inverts, peppermints more often than not become a predator and are often reported to do what Joshua described. Most of the Centropygy angels and many butterflies eat aiptasia too and sometimes the peppermints get all the credit for it when they didn't do it all. Its easy to train them to eat aiptasia, just feed one in front of them and they will learn their food is in the aiptasia. They'll figure out the rest. If you keep soft bodied inverts, its best done in a separate QT tank. Since they are not a target predator, proceed with care and maybe you will be one of the lucky ones.

[JeremyGlen]

I've never had a problem at all with peppermints from the store or florida eating anything but dead snails and aptasia, as well as mysis. Sounds like you had a camel shrimp. I'm not sure how well these guys are doing since I never see them. The only one I've seen since they went into the tank hangs out in the opening of my return from the sump after the lights go out. Its really weird seeing a tail end sticking out of a bulkhead.

[Instar]

No, camels are very different. Easy to tell apart. The field is split about 50/50 between those who will never have them again and those that love them. I liked my cukes, but they turned into football toys for the shrimp until one day they get turned inside out by them. It all depends on what a tank is designed for. I used to watch them go for a walk and pull tentacles off of the montipora as they went. Didn't seem to hurt the coral, but, not really my thing to have that going on. They did that on a regular basis when they thought no one was around. Considering their history, not worth it. I used to breed them for a project. They definitely have the most intriguing and colorfully bizzare larval forms imaginable and adults, if not scared to death make pretty fair scavengers. But, you pointed out that they are predatory in nature too if they eat mysis. Mysis and other small things are a great addition to the bio diversity of the tank and animals that diminish that are just not for some of us. I now have some cool life forms growing from the rocks and tons of mysis and I like that better.

[JeremyGlen]

I was refering to frozen mysis. They eat just about anything you add to the tank for food.