When to pull the plug on the peppermint shrimp after Aiptasia is gone?

[Ziggy17]

I sifted through older threads to get a definite answer but I couldn’t find one.

I had a few Aiptasia sprout up. I put 3 pep shrimp in there, and they made short work of issue. It’s been 2 months now since I’ve seen the pest on anything but the peppermint shrimp have taken a liking to my Zoa garden. Not utter destruction, but certainly a noticeable decrease in the amount of full polyps. I’ve been spot feeding the 3 shrimps daily to try to keep them away from the garden, which has likely helped, but not solved the issue.

So my question after all of that preamble is, when is it safe to remove the shrimp? Meaning is there such thing as no more Aiptasia after there had been a few in the tank? If that scenario is possible, then I can remove the shrimp (with immense difficulty).

Thanks guys.

 

[Peanut]

move them to your sump asap

 

[Lavey29]

Send them to my tank. I got work for them.

 

[Saltyreef24]

move them to your sump asap

Perfect. This way they don’t bother the zoas, but are on hand if more aiptasia spring up. Just gotta cover the sump with screen or something so they don’t jump

 

[Ziggy17]

Is there a trick to catching them? The pop bottle trick didn’t work…. Taking the rockwork out isn’t an option

 

[Jmp998]

Peppermint shrimp are unlikely to remove all Aiptasia; the shrimp are too big to get in every tiny crack and crevice with Aiptasia. You could move them to your sump, then back to your display when needed.