peppermint shrimps not doing what they're meant to do
- Thread starter hzheng33
- Start date
There are other far more effective ways to kill aiptasia if there beginning to be an issue .
Make a cap full of peroxide with a half cap lemon juice , use an insulin syringe to inject them with 1-2 units , just stick them and you will know you got it when it puffed up. It will melt it instantly almost.
Just be careful using to much because lemon juice is acidic and can alter ph if used in quantity.
But 6-10 units , has never made mine sway .
Or if your afraid to gamble with it aiptasia x works but not that great with there plastic syringe it works better wit a real one also IMO.
Maybe if you get the aiptasia under control the peppermints can get hungry and better do there job as they appear.
I don't have any shrimp now but when I did if I brought a new rock or coral in with aiptasia they usually got it in 24 hours. But I would put it in the sand bed near there cave , there far more active in the late night hours when all is asleep. Good luck getting rid of them!!
Make a cap full of peroxide with a half cap lemon juice , use an insulin syringe to inject them with 1-2 units , just stick them and you will know you got it when it puffed up. It will melt it instantly almost.
Just be careful using to much because lemon juice is acidic and can alter ph if used in quantity.
But 6-10 units , has never made mine sway .
Or if your afraid to gamble with it aiptasia x works but not that great with there plastic syringe it works better wit a real one also IMO.
Maybe if you get the aiptasia under control the peppermints can get hungry and better do there job as they appear.
I don't have any shrimp now but when I did if I brought a new rock or coral in with aiptasia they usually got it in 24 hours. But I would put it in the sand bed near there cave , there far more active in the late night hours when all is asleep. Good luck getting rid of them!!
I'm going to buy 20 peppermint shrimp. Whenever I get near an aiptasia with a needle, or anything, it shrivels up into crevice and is impossible to inject with anything, and I've tried plenty. My bottle of aiptasia x is worthless to me.
I might try the lemon juice/peroxide, although I doubt I'll have any luck injecting them, even the massive ones with 1"+ oral plates seem to shrink to nothing
I might try the lemon juice/peroxide, although I doubt I'll have any luck injecting them, even the massive ones with 1"+ oral plates seem to shrink to nothing
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If anyone needs syringes, let me know. I have 600 little ones with needles that were sent to me by mistake, and now the company wont take them back. I also have thousands of bigger ones that are good for spot feeding. no charge.
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Reef napalm ....boooom
same here. aiptasia x, lemon juice, joe's juice, you name i tried. the bigger aiptasias are not so bad, the smaller ones are quick to shrivel and a pain in the butt. that's why i wanted to get some shrimps. nudibranches are not going to work as they only feed off aiptasia and will die later on. some fish are good choices but they're never reef safe for sure.
Edit:
where in ATL are you located in? i can pick up some if you don't mind, just for the future.
JDavid - your wrasse may have eaten your shrimp.
SEA gave you a very concise answer. I have seen it happen too, where peppermints are less apt to forage for aiptasia, if they have meaty food "delivered" too often. When they're hungry, they'll go hunting.
You didn't mention how long you've had the shrimp - the aiptasia don't disappear overnight, but given some time, and a bit of hunger, they'll do what you got them to do. I think you were wise to get more than one. With shrimp, I've observed a "mob mentality", especially with peppermints and cleaner shrimp - each for their specific purpose. Peppermints can and will "clean" fish as well, given an opportunity.
I found when working in tanks with multiples of these types of shrimp, sometimes they are shy at first, but if I had my hand in a tank, once one was brave enough to jump onto my hand, the rest soon followed, and I'd get an instant manicure :lol:
I think once at least one of your peppermints decides to have a go at the aiptasia, the rest will follow.
The problem with chemical removal, is that frequently, people irritate the aiptasia just enough, without actually killing it, so that the aiptasia releases its gametes and the next thing you know, there are more to replace the one you may or may not have killed. When using something like Aiptasia-X, you have to coat the aiptasia enough so that if it does release its gametes, they don't get loose in the water column, to settle someplace else and grow new ones.
Be patient - like anything else, change in a reef tank should happen slowly.
Jenn
SEA gave you a very concise answer. I have seen it happen too, where peppermints are less apt to forage for aiptasia, if they have meaty food "delivered" too often. When they're hungry, they'll go hunting.
You didn't mention how long you've had the shrimp - the aiptasia don't disappear overnight, but given some time, and a bit of hunger, they'll do what you got them to do. I think you were wise to get more than one. With shrimp, I've observed a "mob mentality", especially with peppermints and cleaner shrimp - each for their specific purpose. Peppermints can and will "clean" fish as well, given an opportunity.
I found when working in tanks with multiples of these types of shrimp, sometimes they are shy at first, but if I had my hand in a tank, once one was brave enough to jump onto my hand, the rest soon followed, and I'd get an instant manicure :lol:
I think once at least one of your peppermints decides to have a go at the aiptasia, the rest will follow.
The problem with chemical removal, is that frequently, people irritate the aiptasia just enough, without actually killing it, so that the aiptasia releases its gametes and the next thing you know, there are more to replace the one you may or may not have killed. When using something like Aiptasia-X, you have to coat the aiptasia enough so that if it does release its gametes, they don't get loose in the water column, to settle someplace else and grow new ones.
Be patient - like anything else, change in a reef tank should happen slowly.
Jenn
yeah, that's why i wanted some peppermint shrimps and why i started this thread. so far, the shrimps have not make a dent in the baby aiptasia population yet.
Edit:
JennM;905416 wrote: JDavid - your wrasse may have eaten your shrimp.
SEA gave you a very concise answer. I have seen it happen too, where peppermints are less apt to forage for aiptasia, if they have meaty food "delivered" too often. When they're hungry, they'll go hunting.
You didn't mention how long you've had the shrimp - the aiptasia don't disappear overnight, but given some time, and a bit of hunger, they'll do what you got them to do. I think you were wise to get more than one. With shrimp, I've observed a "mob mentality", especially with peppermints and cleaner shrimp - each for their specific purpose. Peppermints can and will "clean" fish as well, given an opportunity.
I found when working in tanks with multiples of these types of shrimp, sometimes they are shy at first, but if I had my hand in a tank, once one was brave enough to jump onto my hand, the rest soon followed, and I'd get an instant manicure :lol:
I think once at least one of your peppermints decides to have a go at the aiptasia, the rest will follow.
The problem with chemical removal, is that frequently, people irritate the aiptasia just enough, without actually killing it, so that the aiptasia releases its gametes and the next thing you know, there are more to replace the one you may or may not have killed. When using something like Aiptasia-X, you have to coat the aiptasia enough so that if it does release its gametes, they don't get loose in the water column, to settle someplace else and grow new ones.
Be patient - like anything else, change in a reef tank should happen slowly.
Jenn
thanks jenn. like i said i don't disagree with what all the sponsors have been telling me. the shrimps have been in the tank for more than three weeks now and they're not shy at all. they would give me the manicure that you've spoken about. they're just a little "shy" from pursuing after the aiptasia
glxtrix;905431 wrote: Just bring some rocks over my house and I'll toss them in my tank for a few....we'll throw back some beers while my copperband does work
:yay:lol, thanks for the offer. if i were to take it, i would have to throw my entire tank in there
I bought 2 peppermints from Creation Reef and thought they had died. I did not see them for 2 months. Then one night I was looking with a flashlight while the lights were out and I saw them. They must be doing their job as I have not seen 1 aiptasia since I got them. I used to see an aiptasia pop up every few days...
