Peppermint shrimp, aquascaping, and one crazy day

[robbyville]

Hello all,

I thought I'd post a long one, a giggle for all to enjoy.

As some of you may know, karma has come back to plague me. Or more truthfully, plague my tank. After patting myself on the back for gosh knows how long in regards to my Aptaisia control, I have now been over-run. I've tried practically everything except for Berghia Nudibranches (Still trying to source), and a CBB due to tank size restrictions. The best overall was when I placed two small shrimp in the tank only to have them eaten in under 30 seconds by my Blennie and Flame Hawk. NB, I spent three hours acclimating the shrimp buffet.

Well, last week I set up the QT tank, bought two more shrimp from J&L's, put them in the QT and started to rotate rock into that tank for them to feast on. With only a diet of aptaisia to enjoy they were doing a great job of cleaning up.

But my goal was really to place the Flame and Blennie in the QT for a few weeks and have the shrimp in the main tank since Aptaisia are EVERYWHERE. Plus a lot of my rock have corals attached and my lighting for the QT would not sustain corals.

So yesterday I decided enough was enough, the fishies were going to have to move. Blennies are fast, and smart, apparently a heck of a lot smarter than I am. After 2 plus hours of trying to entice him I started to pull rock. With half the rock in the QT tank, I spent another 2 hours trying to catch "Shaq", still no go. Next thing I know I've placed about 70lbs of rock into a 27 gal tank, with another 30 lbs or so in buckets. My water is gross from all the chasing, and all I have in the main tank is one stupid rock with an anemone and a clutch of clownfish eggs which Sid and Nancy are protecting like there's no tomorrow! Still I can't get this stupid fish! Finally I net him and place him in a bowl, and start to re-scape the main tank, well actually my wife did this and there was so much chemical warfare going on that I'm pretty sure she got ill from all the time in the tank.

So I put the two fish into the Qt tank forgetting that I haven't even bagged up the shrimp yet. You know where this is going, to make a short story long... Shaq, swoops in and eats one of the shrimp, I had to laugh at that point. Luckily for me the other shrimp was cowering in fear, I was able to get him out and into the main tank. Hopefully we can get another shrimp with a taste for aptaisia and they can clean up the site. In the meantime, Shaq and "Eyeball" are chilling in jail. At this point I feel no sympathy for Shaq, but I hate seeing eyeball without his friends...Maybe I'll see if I can put him back in...NOT!

Yeesh,

Rob

[christyf5]

Bwahaha! Good story. :biggrin: Fun times in Whistler! No snow needed :razz:

Christy :)

[robbyville]

If I had just stuck to my original Monday plan of strapping the dog to a sled and researching gravity...

[Buccaneer]

:rofl:

[andestang]

Ahh yes, to try and catch the bad one - what a joy :rolleyes: :lol: :lol:

[sumpfinfishe]

Rob,
That's a busy day man! :exclaim:

Have you tried the boiling kalkwasser and a needle and syringe?
My roomate used this technique was was lucky to get all the larger ones.
After that he added 6 pepermints and two weeks later wham'o, they were all gone :mrgreen:

[robbyville]

Hi Rich,

Yep, I've tried that one, good for control but not eradication!

As an update, I have not seen the lone shrimp for a day now, I'm hoping that he made it. Now I'm starting to wonder what other shrimp predators I may have.

Yesterday morning I thought I saw my Sally Litefoot having a pleasant one on one with the shrimp, it did not look like he was being attacked but now I'm starting to wonder...

Does anyone know if Sally's and Peppermint shrimp are compatible? I also have a Yellow Headed sand sifting Goby. Thoughts?

For whenever we have our meeting, does anyone want a Bi-colour Blennie named Shaq?

Rob

[christyf5]

I didn't think Sally Lightfoots were pleasant about anything. I used to watch mine go after my gobies. He had some very expensive snacks before I caught him and sent him back to the store.


Christy :)

[EmilyB]

My sally lightfoot ate my peppermints. I saw him catch the last one. :frown:

[ABreefkpr]

What kind of Blennie do you have that's eating the shrimp. I have another tank that has the Aptaisia, it has an eel so I put Peppermints into main tank and moved the rock over. After the move to the new tank I haven't seen the shrimp. I do have some Blennies.

Keith

[Bob I]

I would be very surprised if a Bicolor blenny would attack a Peppermint Shrimp. They are largely vegetarian. Mine, however, eats Mysis along with the other tank inhabitants. I am wondering if perhaps he just ate at the Hawkfish's table so to speak. :biggrin: :eek: :mrgreen:

[robbyville]

Certainly could be...

the Blennie is in fact a Bi-colour, however he was the first to enjoy the live snack of the initial shrimp, he seemed to be waiting for it somehow!

I reallly need to deal with the aptaisia, so it looks like my next bet will be to add some sand to the QT tank, set a trap and try to catch the crab.

there might also be a chance to get some Berghia which if it works out I'll bring back with me from Holiday in Seattle. If this happens I'll try to propogate them and pass them around, according to research they are the best counter attack to aptaisia, reef safe, but hard to find.

I'll let you know how it works out.

Rob