why dont my peppermint shrimps eat aptasia?

[mxpro32]

i put a peppermint shrimp in my 7 gallon and he never ate any of the aptasia so finally i just manually removed them with a knife. now my girlfriends tank has a serious aptasia problem so we put a peppermint in there about a week ago and he hasnt touched them. what could be the problem? how else can i get rid of them they are growing like mad. some are getting pretty big now.

[Sahin]

There is never any guarrantee that a pep shrimp will eat aiptasia.

 

First thing; are you sure its a true pep?

 

Even if it is a true pep, it doesnt obey any law, it may take a liking to aiptasia, it may not.

 

Let him be for a little while longer. If it gets hungry enough, maybe it'll start on the aiptasia.

 

Else, the best way I have tackled aiptasia successfully is to use kalk paste. I make a thick paste and then microwave it to get it hot. I then using a syringe squirt the paste right into the aiptasia mouth. Sometimes with the larger ones especially, a second dose is needed.

 

Dont attempt killing all of the aiptasia at once. Tackle a few each day. Use no more than 3-5mls of kalk paste at each time.

 

You'll kill them this way soon enough and while they melt, the pep shrimp may take aliking to them and start eating them--this I have read happens.

 

Hope this helps. Good luck.

[mxpro32]

thanks sahin. so just get some pickeling lime and make it into a paste? that sounds easy enough. im gonna try that.

[crollison]

With my pepp he seemed to reall love redish/pink aiptasia, but when I found a more grayish/red one with a stripe on each tentical the pepp wouldn't touch it. He actully tried and eat it once, but it seemed to sting him or something. When he touched it he retracted really quickly as if in pain.

[tyoberg]

Even if it's inclined to eat aiptasia, they'll only go for the small ones. Ditto all the above remarks.

 

Also, if it get's hungry enough, it might decide to try other corals besides aiptasia.

 

Ty