advice? aptasia in new tank

[lynxie]

90 gal w/ 30ish sump (fuge in sump), just over 1 month old. so far, i've just got a clump of mushrooms, a few zoa frags, 8 asst snails (turbo and sand-sifting), and a doz tiny (1/8"-1/4" shells) blue-leg dwarf hermits to help with the brown (diatom?) algae bloom i got once i started running my lights (ran w/ sand/salt/l-r for a few weeks until amonia/nitrite was back to 0, then added lights and a few snails, then this weekend when the bloom hit i added more snails and the crabs). i also picked up 2 types of macro algae (forget the names - one was the boring looking one that many places keep in their sumps/fuges, and the other was the cool bubble caulerpa) for in my sump/fuge in hopes of cutting down on the nitrates the brown was using to multiply.... and this a/m, i noticed a a couple of aiptasia growing on the macro-algae in the fuge. i've read that peppermint shrimp will eat them, but i'm worried that i'm adding too much livestock too soon, or that my tank may not be stable enough yet for shrimp (assuming they're more sensitive than snails/hermits?).... i could just tweeze them out, but i doubt i'd find all the little ones, so i'd still end up with the same prob (tho maybe later on down the road) as they eventually reproduce, get into the display tank, reproduce everywhere....

what do you think? am i ok to grab a shrimp (or 2? 3? how many?) should i just tweeze them out for now and let them potentially spread, then add shrimp later on to eat them? or?

[Dragonist]

I say get a peppermint shrimp to take care of them

[lynxie]

thanks.... should i get just 1 for in the fuge where i actually see the aiptasia? or 1 for fuge 1 for tank? or?

[jenglish]

You can try a shrimp (just acclimate them slowly) or you can try kalk paste. It is just pickling lime from the grocery store. You can inject them with it or I just cover them in the paste.

[lynxie]

i think maybe i'll try a shrimp. kalk would leave me with the same prob as tweezing them out - any that i don't see can still end up in the tank and/or reproducing.

[Loverotties]

I inject with paste.

[Mr.Peanut]

I put 2 pepps in my 75. I only had a handful of aiptasia. Now the are all gone. Just make sure that they dont sell you camel shrimp dressed up like peppermint shrimp. Camel shrimp do not eat aiptasia.

It will take a week or 2 before you start to see a difference. Plus they mostly come out at night to feed.

[jenglish]

I have used peppermints in the past and they didn't do much until I backed off my feeding schedule. I think it is like trying to get a bear to catch a fish if you give him a bucket of honey every day.

[bcrum51]

if they are in the fuge its ok they are great filter feeders the shrimp will help in the display tank as long as they haven't gotten too large you can use a variety of injection type remedies joe's juice, kalk paste, lime juice, aptasia control the list goes on and on try not to pick them off with tweezers though it can actually make more then you had before

[Dragonist]

I see my peppermint shrimp when lights are on. But he is most active when the lights off. Due to my work schedule I turn my lights on @ 1700hrs(5 pm). When I am off work I follow the same light schedule. When I have my entertainment room lights on I see him zipping around the tank. Sometimes on the glass upside down on the water surface.I think they are best enjoyed when the tank lights are off.

[lynxie]

they were attached to macro-algae, so i actually tweezed the big ones off by grabbing the algae stem they were attached to (not the aiptasia itself). popped the shrimp in the fuge at first, but he seemed stressed there (not very big, no hiding spots) so i ended up moving him to the display tank anyway, where he hid under a rock. he was booting around this morning tho (before the fixture turned on) so i think he'll be fine.

i found a bunch of other hitchhikers in there too last night while poking around the algae in the fuge: several bristle worms (at least, for pics i've seen of them that's waht i'm 90% sure they are), some kind of pod, and about 6 little tube worms (brown tubes slightly flexible, white plume, 1 single plume/tube, tube diameter approx 1/32"). so far i have NOT been feeding anything - i have 7 snails (asst spp) about a doz tiny blue-leg dwarf hermits, and now the shrimp and above hitchhikers. i'm still at the ugly stage of brown diatom algae covering most of my rock.... do i need to start adding any kind of food for the tube worms or shrimp, or will they (like the snails & hermits) be fine until the tank algae is under controll?

[Mr.Peanut]

Like bcrum51 said....if they are in the fuge...you can let them be.

[lynxie]

they won't spread like wildfire from fuge to display? that's my concern, since there's no real barrier (just baffles) from fuge to return to keep small things in fuge

[tdwyatt]

Originally Posted by lynxie

they won't spread like wildfire from fuge to display? that's my concern, since there's no real barrier (just baffles) from fuge to return to keep small things in fuge

Yes. Not really a problem if the sump is not lighted, though.

[lynxie]

it's lit. it's on the same photo-period as the display