A shoutout to the MVP in Aiptasia annihilation

[metalruebe]

I struggled with a massive Aiptasia outbreak and wanted to summarize my experience for newcomers who struggle.

Kalkpaste and injectable solutions: pricey, inconvenient, harm corals if in contact

Filefish: did nothing at all to my aiptasia, devoured zoas and fleshy LPS

Berghia: work good, take their time, are freakishly expensive and die with the last aiptasia... unfortunately the cycle begins again, because they won't catch every Aiptasia cell -> wallet gone

Copperband: mine had no appetite at all for aiptasia, hit and miss, pls dont get this fish just for pest control, they're so hard to keep (at least for me)

MVP:

I hesitated to get Peppermint shrimp, because it seems many different species from the wurdemanni complex are casually called peppermint shrimp. Many have been caught eating LPS, Zoas etc.

I researched and gave the Kuekenthali shrimp a shot... its a miracle!!! A week in, no Aiptasia left. I have 4 shrimps in 90 gallon for about 9 months now. Every now and then i see baby Aiptasia plopping out - a day or two and GONE, hunted down. I never see the shrimps out at daytime, they hide, eat also detritus and frozen leftovers when the Aiptasia regenerate.

Let us cherish these little dudettes and dudes, no trade-offs, just awesomeness

 

[Townes_Van_Camp]

Always the aiptasia hitman I hire. They've never let me down before.

 

[GlassMunky]

I’ve never had any peppermints eat aiptasia once they were in an actual reef.
Sure they eat them in the store tanks, but as soon as they are in a real tank with other food sources they ignore the nems and just want to steal food from corals or whatever else.


I find them as useless as anything else. Maybe even worse since they pick at corals

 

[metalruebe]

I’ve never had any peppermints eat aiptasia once they were in an actual reef.
Sure they eat them in the store tanks, but as soon as they are in a real tank with other food sources they ignore the nems and just want to steal food from corals or whatever else.


I find them as useless as anything else. Maybe even worse since they pick at corals

Were they Lysmata kuekenthali? Or another Lysmata species also called peppermint? I heard of shops misidentifying them as kuekenthali also.... hm

I have a mixed reef with a BTA and they touch nothing except Aiptasia.

I had Aiptasia grown in between Zoa colonies and they worked like surgeons.

 

[GlassMunky]

Were they Lysmata kuekenthali? Or another Lysmata species also called peppermint? I heard of shops misidentifying them as kuekenthali also.... hm

I honestly don’t know and wouldn’t trust any LFS to have a proper ID on them when there are sooo many that all look alike. Everything is just a peppermint.

 

[GlassMunky]

I don’t even trust the online sites with proper species ID most of the time.
Glad it worked for you but don’t think it’s sure thing for most people.

 

[GlassMunky]

Nobody is actually doing ANY ID other than the exporter.
If they says it’s “X” species then that’s what it’s labeled as through the entire chain to the final customer, even if it’s wrong.

 

[Reefer Matt]

Definitely all about getting the right species. I’ve had a similar experience, and haven’t had aiptasia in any of my five tanks in a few years now. It also helps to get rid of them on sight, rather than waiting to get around to it. Awesome that it worked out for you!

 

[Doctorgori]

my peppermints worked, in some tanks went years w/o seeing a single aptasia…
…saw one recently, tried one of the commercial paste and now have many..
Trying berghias now…

like anything folks particular success/fails
it’s just another data point,

 

[metalruebe]

Nobody is actually doing ANY ID other than the exporter.
If they says it’s “X” species then that’s what it’s labeled as through the entire chain to the final customer, even if it’s wrong.

I think misidentification is the culprit here indeed. I'm also no professional in taxonomy, i confirmed with my literature as good as i could. But there are a few species with that specific light redish marmored coloring, thats a fact.

 

[Brazilian Reefer]

I struggled with a massive Aiptasia outbreak and wanted to summarize my experience for newcomers who struggle.

Kalkpaste and injectable solutions: pricey, inconvenient, harm corals if in contact

Filefish: did nothing at all to my aiptasia, devoured zoas and fleshy LPS

Berghia: work good, take their time, are freakishly expensive and die with the last aiptasia... unfortunately the cycle begins again, because they won't catch every Aiptasia cell -> wallet gone

Copperband: mine had no appetite at all for aiptasia, hit and miss, pls dont get this fish just for pest control, they're so hard to keep (at least for me)

MVP:

I hesitated to get Peppermint shrimp, because it seems many different species from the wurdemanni complex are casually called peppermint shrimp. Many have been caught eating LPS, Zoas etc.

I researched and gave the Kuekenthali shrimp a shot... its a miracle!!! A week in, no Aiptasia left. I have 4 shrimps in 90 gallon for about 9 months now. Every now and then i see baby Aiptasia plopping out - a day or two and GONE, hunted down. I never see the shrimps out at daytime, they hide, eat also detritus and frozen leftovers when the Aiptasia regenerate.

Let us cherish these little dudettes and dudes, no trade-offs, just awesomeness

Unfortunately I think this shrimp doesn't appear on the list of allowed animals to import in Brazil. Already had* L. wurdemanni before, it not only didn't eat aiptasia, but also killed my bubble tip anemone, my frammer, my plate and trumpet corals... spent the rest of its days on the sump... =/
A lot of cool fish also do not appear on that list. They are not forbidden, but how they don't appear on the allowed list, they just don't come here, they stay in limbo... That's the case of the Pink-Streaked Wrasse... =/

 

[Brazilian Reefer]

I have an aiptasia in a place I can't reach to put epoxi, kalkwasser or whatever... but I am afraid to get a Peppermint and it finishes with my Blastomussa merletti and Hammer coral... My tank isn't big enough for a butterfly, and the Filefish would feast on my softies...

 

[LARedstickreefer]

I had peppermints clear out hundreds of Aiptasia from my tank. Each and everyone that I could see…It seemed that months went by before I noticed anything happening and then they were just gone.

Berghia never did anything other than disappear.

 

[MarsReefer]

I got peppermint shrimp from algae barn, and they worked great. They took a few months but one day I noticed that there were no aptasia left.

However after a year now they are starting to pop back up. I think I lost a bunch of shrimp and my clove polyps have started disappearing. I think they've gotten a taste for them instead of the aptasia.

 

[WhatCouldGoWrong71]

Were they Lysmata kuekenthali? Or another Lysmata species also called peppermint? I heard of shops misidentifying them as kuekenthali also.... hm

I have a mixed reef with a BTA and they touch nothing except Aiptasia.

I had Aiptasia grown in between Zoa colonies and they worked like surgeons.

Where do I find this mythical creature? I must have the welfare loving government cheese eating version in my tanks.