Aiptasia experiment

[extreme_tooth_decay]

So I have a couple small aiptasia growing inside my overflow box, as you can see in the first pic.

(One is in the extreme foreground, towards the top, the other on the bottom in the background)

 

I could easily take the box off and scrub out the aiptasia, but I thought it'd be fun to see what happens if I put a peppermint shrimp inside the overflow box...see second pic.

 

I'll look it at every day to see if he's done anything to the aiptasia (or escaped, which I think is likely, but will lead to his doom since he'll get sucked into a pump on one side and killed by a giant mantis shrimp on the other)

 

I know it's hit or miss, just looking for some amusement mostly. When I first put him in, he approached an aiptasia and touched it, and then recoiled very quickly. I think he was stung. Not a good sign!

 

tim

 

 

[jason the filter freak]

Mantis shrip or eat aptasia thats a hard choice... as long as he doesn't get sucked up I imagine he might get hungry eventually and eat up.

[lanman]

I can't seem to keep peppermints alive in any of my systems... Even the nano ... and there's almost nothing in there; the damsel must eventually find and kill them.

 

The 58 has a gorilla crab that probably gets them. The 240 - I have no idea; they last quite a while, and then just slowly dwindle until there aren't any. The frag tank - there is a tiny mantis shrimp in there; maybe he manages to track them down.

 

I would LOVE to put about 20 peppermints in my 240 and have them eat all of the aiptasia. But I've tried 10, and they didn't touch the stuff... or at least they didn't make a dent in it.

 

Interesting experiment.

 

bob

[extreme_tooth_decay]

I can't seem to keep peppermints alive in any of my systems... Even the nano ... and there's almost nothing in there; the damsel must eventually find and kill them.

 

The 58 has a gorilla crab that probably gets them. The 240 - I have no idea; they last quite a while, and then just slowly dwindle until there aren't any. The frag tank - there is a tiny mantis shrimp in there; maybe he manages to track them down.

 

I would LOVE to put about 20 peppermints in my 240 and have them eat all of the aiptasia. But I've tried 10, and they didn't touch the stuff... or at least they didn't make a dent in it.

 

Interesting experiment.

 

bob

 

 

They seem to last forever in mine. I have a pair of clowns, a super aggressize 8" sohal, and other fish. The peppermints are bold. They steal food from my anemones...I used to try to use my hand to fend them off while the anemones were eating, but the peppermints would jump onto my finger and bite it. And it hurt.

 

For my time and money, nothing beats the instant gratification of Joe's Juice (I still haven't run into one that didn't die the first or second time)...but I thought I'd have a little fun with these aiptasias.

[extreme_tooth_decay]

Well, I went down there tonight, and the shrimp was sitting in the exact place one of the 2 aiptasias used to exist.

 

It has been completely removed. There is still one aiptasia left.

 

I'm officially impressed. The little guy has unquestionably eaten one entire aiptasia.

 

[flowerseller]

Unless he picked at it and it happen to let go and floated down into the pump, making you plenty more for the future experiment.

[DDiver]

Unless he picked at it and it happen to let go and floated down into the pump, making you plenty more for the future experiment.

lol

[extreme_tooth_decay]

Unless he picked at it and it happen to let go and floated down into the pump, making you plenty more for the future experiment.

 

 

Possible! But...I noticed this morning that there was a peppermint shrimp molting floating around inside my overflow. Looks like he ate so much aiptasia he molted!

[Tee]

So cool.

Tee

 

Well, I went down there tonight, and the shrimp was sitting in the exact place one of the 2 aiptasias used to exist.

 

It has been completely removed. There is still one aiptasia left.

 

I'm officially impressed. The little guy has unquestionably eaten one entire aiptasia.

[lanman]

If you run out of aiptasia, I can probably bring you a rock with a few on it...

 

bob

[extreme_tooth_decay]

Well here it is tonight...he has now totally cleaned out both aiptasias...sitting very near the spot where the last aiptasia was. I'm very impressed. Both aiptasias were about 1" (not tiny)

 

He done did it. Pokeberries for everyone!

 

I guess I need to fish him out and put him in my display

 

Edited July 17, 2008 by extreme_tooth_decay

[Freezerburn]

I can't catch shrimp for nothing, how did you get him in the first place?

[MOT]

When I used to work at an LFS I would take rocks from various tanks covered in aptasia and place them in the "peppermint shrimp only" tank. Sure enough the shrimp would eat the aptasia. I have also had problems keeping peppermint shrimp, it seems that they get eaten by my fish.

[extreme_tooth_decay]

I can't catch shrimp for nothing, how did you get him in the first place?

 

 

I bought him from the LFS and dropped him directly into the overflow

[lanman]

How much do you want for that trained peppermint shrimp?

 

bob

[extreme_tooth_decay]

How much do you want for that trained peppermint shrimp?

 

bob

 

 

You can have him if you want him. My experiment is over.

[lanman]

You can have him if you want him. My experiment is over.

 

He would just die... like the last 20 I got. Go ahead and put him in the display - he deserves a nice home!

 

bob

[SeanCallan]

Wow, I've never had problems with peppermints.

 

I had some I thought had died, but when I decided to re-arrange my rocks I found that they were hiding way way in the back.