Pepp shrimp, how many would I need for a 55 gallon w/ a fair amount of aiptasia?

[JaredSD]

How many of these little dudes would I need for my 55 gallon tank? I have quite a few areas that are infested with aiptasia, but I don't want to overload on the shrimp also. What do ya think?

[twkenny]

Well........IME peps won't eat aptasia if it has much size to it..and some won't touch the stuff.
They're pretty cool to have regardless, just make sure you get real peppermints. I'd get 3...they seem to be more "social" when there are 3. You don't see them a whole lot anyway.
If you can "borrow" a Copperband to eat the big ones, the peps will sometimes take care of the tiny ones....but IMO a 55 is too small for a Copperband to thrive in....so he'd need to go back to a big tank.

[reefD]

i have pepermints and when i first added them to my 55 gallon i had some aptasias. i dont feed them and after a week or so the aptasias begin dissapearing. i actually witnessed one eating a good size aptasia during the night with a flashlight. i added 9 to my 55 agllon. after a few weeks about 7 remained. if you have any aggressive coral banded shrimp they will pick them off at night. pepermints seem to be easy targets at night . in any case the rest ussually figuire out how to survive and not get ambushed. i truely believe that pepermints do eat aptasias as i saw it with my own eyes!

[josh holt]

peppermint shrimp eating aptaisa is hit and miss. if your tank is thriving and has an abundance of food they may not eat the aptaisa. i put two in my fourty gallon and they never touched it. they did however pair up and breed a couple of times. unfortunatly one of them died. the other i still have and have had it for over a year now.

[reefD]

i say add a good amount so that if there is other forms of food the numbers will keep it low and thus someone will get hungry and taste an ap6tasia maybe. all in theory.