Magical Farming Peppermint Shrimp....?

[ReefGrrl]

So I freaked when I suddenly noticed aiptasia EVERYWHERE but especially, right in the middle of various zoa colonies. The zoas were staying closed and revealing the infestation. I admit, I took the long tweezers to a couple of them, trying to grind them out of existence but the effect was, as numerous articles had warned, that they spread faster.

After doing ridiculous amounts of reading, trying (and failing - I'm in southern Ontario) to source the right type of nudibranches, and fretting as I watched the spread of the scourge, I finally decided to take a chance on some peppermint shrimp. It was the right decision. Within two weeks, as everyone said would happen, most of the aiptasia were obliterated. I got four shrimp, and though one disappeared within a few days the other three went to work.

But here's the thing. There is one, single individual aiptasia remaining in the upper back corner of the tank on the very top shelf of that rock structure. It's not huge, maybe about 2cm across the oral disc, but the tentacles are quite long and they still are irritating the zoa colony in that area. I have seen peppermint shrimp right beside it, ripping at tiny snack-sized babies, but not touching the larger one. There were other aiptasia that were bigger, that disappeared.

Could it be that these peppermint shrimp are.....farmers? Are they leaving one aiptasia to spread and replenish their buffet, I wonder? I have not seen any of the pesky things anywhere else in the tank, and I'm constantly searching.

Whatever, the word that comes to mind considering the great cleanup job they did, is magical. I was apprehensive, but they worked.

Now I just need to maybe pop that frag plug off and move that zoa colony somewhere else where they won't be constantly stung.

So if anyone is wondering whether to use peppermint shrimp for aiptasia control, it gets my vote.