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RE: Glass Anenomes

dsteamn — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 21:27:11 GMT

It is absolutely not true that you can't keep a coral banded shrimp with other ornamental shrimp. I have a 75 gal. reef with a rather large coral banded, two cleaner shrimp, 4 peppermints, a fire shrimp and even a sexy shrimp. He has never bothered anyone. In fact, he stays off to himself and quite private. I have to wait until night time to get a good pic of him.

Other inhabitants we have in the tank: one pink and one rose bubble tip anemone, about 50 different corals, sailfin tang, yellow tang, algae blenny, scooter blenny, mated pair of maroon clowns, ruby wrasse, three large chromis, two damsels, orchid dottyback, blue linkia star, sand sifting star, brittle star, two headed coco worm, 18 inch tigertail cucumber, 3 emerald crabs, sally lightfoot crab, various hermits and snails.

Our tank has been up and running for several years and everything stays quite stable. I think the key to keeping any inhabitants together is to just make sure you are meeting their conditions. Everyone gets enough to eat and their water quality is kept at pristene levels, so no one bothers anyone else. I do weekly water changes and run everything on timers for consistency.

RE: Glass Anenomes

Nep2Ns PlumR — Sat, 03 May 2008 07:08:33 GMT

Good to here that they worked for you as well. Like anything else they're not always a 100% cure, but we seem to be batting 1000 here so far. Anytime I can find a natural solution to a problem -vs- a chemical one I opt for natural. With all of the dependencies and interactions going on in a reef, you never know what the end result of adding chemicals may be.

RE: Glass Anenomes

plecodiscus — Sat, 03 May 2008 04:55:31 GMT

I added 3 peppermint shrimp to my 30 gal, they killed all my aptasia, my banded coral shrimp killed one so now I have only 2 peppermints, and I see my peppermint shrimp all the time.

RE: Glass Anenomes

Nep2Ns PlumR — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 08:03:32 GMT

Very cool. Glad they took care of the problem. If the ones you could see are gone, the ones you couldn't are most likely gone too. The shrimp will eat the ones they can get to and still stay hidden first. They also tend to leave the bigger ones till last.

RE: Glass Anenomes

deluxerider — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 09:50:22 GMT

I have placed 5 peppermints in the tank and never see them. They must be alive, because I have noticed a decrease in the glass anenomes. The large ones that were highly visible appear to be gone! Thanks for the help.

RE: Glass Anenomes

Nep2Ns PlumR — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 05:01:01 GMT

When I had the 125g with the +/- 20 in it, the were visible for most of the time once they got use to their surroundings. Some times 6-7 of 'em would come out and clean my arm while I was working in the tank. (Very cool)Mostly they would hang upside down on the bottom of the liverock.

RE: Glass Anenomes

Hailey — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 19:24:16 GMT

They hide a lot...I never see mine except when I look in at night with a red light. They're very skittish shrimp compared to most other species.

RE: Glass Anenomes

deluxerider — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 18:27:26 GMT

Just an update. I put the 2 peppermint shrimp in, and have not seen them since. I will feed very sparingly for the next 48 to see if they come out of hiding and what they do. Besides their red striping, they look similar to ghost shrimp. Which I feed to the tank once a week. I hope they are hiding, and did not become a snack for the other tank mates.

RE: Glass Anenomes

Nep2Ns PlumR — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 06:15:32 GMT

I wouldn't feed at all for at least 3-4 days. (Apparently aptaisia aren't as tastey as some prepared foods are.) Then still keep feedings infrequent until most of them are gone. Probably take 3-4 weeks.

RE: Glass Anenomes

Hailey — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 20:13:59 GMT

Good luck. I have heard that you should feed sparingly and try to keep the peppermint shrimp from getting any if you want them to eat the glass anemones, so you may want to try that. Let us know how it goes.

RE: Glass Anenomes

deluxerider — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 20:08:22 GMT

Well I caught the CB shrimp!!! Took him back to pet store & got 2 Peppermint Shrimp. We'll see what happens.

RE: Glass Anenomes

deluxerider — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:38:08 GMT

Thanks! Looks like the CB Shrimp gets ousted!!!!

RE: Glass Anenomes

Nep2Ns PlumR — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 08:03:29 GMT

The drawback to all of the paste/kalk/Joe's Juice/injection methods is that they only work on the aptaisia that you can see and/or get a syringe to. They don't do anything to the one's that you don't see and that will continue to reproduce requiring more applications that still don't solve the problem. All of the previously mentioned methods work to some extent, but if you don't get 'em all, they will be back. Further if the application just injures the anemone, it sends it into survival mode causing it to reproduce even more rapidly than it would otherwise!

My advice would be to remove the CB shrimp and replace it with several lysmata wurdemanni (peppermint shrimp). They're able to (and do) get into even the small nooks and crannies that the aptaisia anchor their bases in and eat even the most minute pieces of the animal. They don't come back. Furthermore they'll find all of them, even the ones that YOU can't see.

Another plus for reef keepers is that they spawn almost continuously. You'll never see any of the young but the eggs that they broadcast become food for your corals/filter feeders. Always nice to kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

RE: Glass Anenomes

ILuvMyGoldBarb — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 03:49:31 GMT

I can tell you on good authority from advice I was given by an advanced reef keeper, you can't keep other ornamental shrimp with a Coral Banded Shrimp. After a bit more research, the fastest method appears to be a direct injection of Kent Reef Iodine into the base of the Aptasia. You need a needle and a syringe to accomplish that. Apparently Joe's Juice is quite effective.

RE: Glass Anenomes

deluxerider — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:04:54 GMT

Thanks for the advice. I research everything before I place it in the aquarium & everything I've read on the coral banded is that they are fairly peaceful except for there own and may bother smaller shrimp. The cleaner was 2x its size. They even hung out together in the same area of the aquarium. Although you may be right in that it had something to do w/ the cleaners' demise, I figured they would be fine since there was such a size difference.

RE: Glass Anenomes

Hailey — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:08:22 GMT

I really wouldn't add more shrimp to the tank with a coral banded shrimp in there...I personally suspect him in the death of the cleaner (despite the size difference).

RE: Glass Anenomes

deluxerider — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:21:22 GMT

Thanks all for the tid-bits! @ the moment I am trying Kents Concentrated Calcium. I will try the peppermint shrimp. I have a 90 gl tank that's been up for several years. I just added a coral banded shrimp. I had a white striped cleaner that was nearing 4". He just disappeared a few days ago. Sad to lose him. The coral banded is about 1/2 the size so I don't think he had anything to do w/ it. Although I am questioning some of his tank mates.

RE: Glass Anenomes

ILuvMyGoldBarb — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:23:29 GMT

I'll throw the idea of Joe's Juice out there. I've heard mixed review on it and mixed stories of success.

RE: Glass Anenomes

Hailey — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:55:25 GMT

If you do the kalk paste trick (which works beautifully on other Cnidarian hitchhikers too by the way...I killed some nasty thimble jelly polyps with it) just do it outside the tank and let the rock sit for eight hours or so, washing it off thoroughly in tank water before putting the rock back in. The kalk paste can be dangerous if you put it in your tank, and wear gloves because it can be quite hazardous to your fingers as well. Another warning is that it will kill you coralline algae and anything else you like on the rock you treat too.

RE: Glass Anenomes

dmzldame — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 08:50:00 GMT

Glass anemones easy to keep and hard to be rid of. If you make a paste with kalkwasser and then apply it to the glass anemones, it does remove them. Just make sure that you syphon any part out. You could get peppermint shrimp to help remove them. A few of my friends have done that and had great success with it. Just make sure your tank is fully cycled. BTW, do not try to scrape,cut or in any was damage them. It will make more.

RE: Glass Anenomes

Nep2Ns PlumR — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 04:51:57 GMT

By calcium do you mean calcium hydroxide? If mixed stiff, the high pH will sometimes burn 'em up, but not always. Fact is I don't thing there is a sure fix. What I've had the best luck with is peppermint shrimp. 3 or so depending on the size of your tank (I've had as many as 20 in a 125g tank). Note that in order for them to be effective, you'll need to not feed the tank for a while. If other food is available they will choose to eat it rather than the aptaisia. Over a period of a couple of weeks they'll slowly disappear.

Further note, if you're tank is still cycling, let that process complete before adding any livestock!

Glass Anenomes

deluxerider — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 20:02:45 GMT

I have several glass anenomes appearing in my live rock, any suggestions on how to get rid of them? I have tried squirting them w/ calcium and so far it has had little effect.