Aiptasia - the Heinous Nuisance Anemone.
Aiptasia is an anemone that is considered a pest for the aggressive way in which it will overtake your tank in short order. If you see or suspect aiptasia in your tank, the best advice is to act quickly - as it will seize the day and eradication can become more difficult as they grow in both size and number.
Wikipedia states "Aiptasia sp. are considered pests in the marine aquarium hobby, because they are stressful to coral around them, and occasionally even sting fish and desirable invertebrates. They are often accidentally imported along with live rock. Once present in the aquarium, the polyps are notoriously difficult to remove as attempts to remove often inadvertently create more, due to new polyps regenerating from remnants. Hobbyists commonly put Peppermint shrimp inside the aquarium to control Aiptasia populations.
In our 10+ years of Aquarium Maintenance in our personal aquariums, 20,000 gallons of saltwater at our business and for our paying maintenance clients, wild caught (read - NOT tank raised) peppermint shrimp have enormous success in eliminating the aiptasia anemone.
Several You Tube videos are available showing peppermint shrimp happily munching on aiptasia.
Right now - Reefs2go.com, your online Marine Fish Store is offering a special on Aiptasia eating Peppermint Shrimp
When you purchase ONE for $3.99 you will receive a second for FREE!!
Adam of Iowa stated - “I bought 10 of these peppermint shrimp from Reefs2go.com and put them in my tank hoping they would kill my aptasia. They did it in the matter of two days. These seem to be more social than most peppermints I’ve seen and one even jumped on my hand and cleaned a piece of skin off of it. My cleaners do this all the time, but I never expected a peppermint to do it. A+!!!”