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Tue, 8th Jul 2008, 02:53 PM
#17
you could be right Ping, but it looks like they either eat aiptasia or they dont. and depending on what species you have because a couple are hard to tell apart, you might end up with the wrong one, but theyre hard to distinguish. not talking about the camelback in this case
"Peppermint shrimp, Lysmata wurdemanni, have been recommended to clean up Aiptasia in display tanks. Basically, they work sometimes. I have had tanks where I introduced a few and within weeks all the Aiptasia were gone. In other instances, they don’t seem to eat any Aiptasia , and instead concentrate on stealing food from fish and corals. I have even witnessed them attacking and eating small feather dusters and Astraea snails, so I would say these are at best hit or miss. The one thing to watch out for if you select this method is to be sure that you get the true Peppermint shrimp. You are looking for Lysmata wurdemanni. These are collected out of the tropical West Atlantic Ocean/Caribbean. There are several other shrimp that are also imported and are occasionally mistaken for Peppermint shrimp. The most commonly available is Rhynchocinetes durbanensis, also called the Camel Shrimp or Dancing Shrimp because of the distinctive hump on their back. These are easy enough to distinguish, though. Additionally, there are two other species of Lysmata shrimp that are occasionally available and much easier to confuse with the true Peppermint shrimp. Lysmata rathbunae and Lysmata californica are similar and alleged to be not as likely to consume Aiptasia. Both of these also hail from cooler water, so there is some concern for their long-term viability in typical warm water reef displays."
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