How many peppermints?

[JoJosReef]

First time introducing peppermint shrimp. Lost the battle with manual removal, berghs didn't survive, and this is my last resort. There is plenty of aiptasia in the tank. The population exploded after I tried to fry the Aips with a laser over the course of a week, which didn't kill a single one but resulted in 100s of baby Aips all over everything a week later.

IM 40 gal Long AIO:

IM 10g AIO:

I'm thinking if I account for 1 or possibly 2 DOAs, maybe get 6 peppermints so that at least 3 can go in the 40g and 1 in the 10g. Does that sound correct?

NOTE: surviving peppermints will be transferred to a new 80g + sump that is going up once I finish setup and do the tank transfer, so that'd be their new home (at least some in sump).

Thanks!

 

[VintageReefer]

Told you the laser was bad idea

Peppermints will harass lps and while many have had success there is an equal number of people, myself included, where peppermints never touch aiptasia

If you can’t qt the wrasse for a month for berghia treatment then taking chances with peppermint shrimp might be the best choice for this tank. Try and buy from a vendor / seller who confirms theirs eat aiptasia. And I think 4-5 is a good number

 

[JoJosReef]

Told you the laser was bad idea

Peppermints will harass lps and while many have had success there is an equal number of people, myself included, where peppermints never touch aiptasia

If you can’t qt the wrasse for a month for berghia treatment then taking chances with peppermint shrimp might be the best choice for this tank. Try and buy from a vendor / seller who confirms theirs eat aiptasia. And I think 4-5 is a good number

It was a bad idea, and now I have a useless laser. I worry about my LPS, especially the trachy/lobo/scoly/plates... but the Aips are out of control.

 

[DaJMasta]

I haven't really had issues with peppermints and LPS, but I have seen them pull things out of rock flower anemones at night when they're out. I think they are probably worth the risk, but you could consider other options, namely filefish. Now I have had issues with them an LPS, but plenty of people have had better experiences, and getting one would probably do a more reliable job than a handful of peppermints for most of the aiptasia you can see - plus if something goes wrong, it will probably show during the day and be easier to remove rather than peppermints who are out mostly at night.

If you do want to go with peppermints, 6 sounds reasonable to me. you want to make sure they have ledges to hang out under (even narrow above the sand bed ones) during the day, but they can live happy enough as a colony, so they don't really need their own territory. While they will scour the tank at night, you can expect that most aiptasia reduction early on will be smaller anemones and closer to hiding spots, so it may take some time to really see the effect you're hoping for.

 

[VintageReefer]

Ora filefish did eat all my aiptasia and then ate all my acans and killed a 5 yr old gold hammer colony. When I saw him nip at my banana grail one day, I decided immediately he had to go back to the LFS