Aiptasia Advice..

[TripFamAZ]

Hello everyone.. Happy New Year!
I was hoping I could get some advice… I have a 7 month old 50 gallon AIO that I keep a single peacock mantis shrimp in.
I have noticed recently that I have 3 stalks of aiptasa growing in the tank. I do not keep any type of corals.
I am hesitant to treat the Aiptasia with the various options (cannot do peppermint shrimp or a file fish) because I have heard that can actually cause it to spread more throughout the tank. I would really prefer to NOT have to take the rocks out for the removal as they are growing on intricate parts of my mantis’s burrow.
Will they eventually just overtake the tank if untreated? Is it ok to just leave them or best to take the chance of spread and treat them?
Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[Daniel92481]

Happy New Year! I would take them out asap. There are a few different methods other peppermints and filefish. You could try hot water, lemon juice, Kalk, superglue, etc. if there’s three you can see, there’s probably a few or a lot more that you can’t.

 

[jabberwock]

I personally would not panic. I would wait and see what happens. But that's me...

 

[Notsolostfish]

I personally would not panic. I would wait and see what happens. But that's me...

Not sure what to wait for, once u have aiptasia u always have aiptasia. U need to have a predator for it to keep it under control. Even witj berghia nudis sometimes they do a good job eating it, starve and die. And then aiptasia comes back. Its a cycle once you have it u have it. And they spread a lot

 

[tbasinger]

Just get some apastasia x. Kills it just fine, won’t hurt anything. Like said before they will keep popping up in different places so you just have to keep killing them

 

[Uncle99]

Remove ASAP.
F-Aptasia works well but be sure to seal around the pest as well.

Aptasia X works for spot treatment as well, but again, not just the pest, but around the pest the size of a dime.

I don’t use the supplied syringe, I use 1/8th inch ridge airline tube and not shy putting it on.

Used both for quite some time, hurt none else.

Let both work with flow off for an hour.

Two-apart epoxy is another choice, roll some and cover.
You can pull it off sometime later if you wish.

Wack em when you see them, be persistent.

 

[Pistondog]

The longer you wait, likely the more youll have. I use a slurry made of kalk powder and using a syringe, squirt/seal the polyp, chasing it as it retracts to the rock.

 

[monfilsi]

I use a high power laser to zap them. Easy and effective but make sure you have very good eye protection and do it without other family members and pets around… if you go down that route.

 

[TripFamAZ]

Thank you all for the advice! I’ll go ahead and try either the F1 Aiptasia or the Red Sea X one,. Is one better over the other? I was leaning towards the X.
Also any suggestions on if it’s worth buying a Bergia Nudabranch to try to help since it seems like it will be a regular problem? There is a good chance my mantis might just kill it.

 

[Mikeltee]

File Fish. If you use chemical or mechanical means the spores will spread and you will have 100.

 

[TripFamAZ]

File Fish. If you use chemical or mechanical means the spores will spread and you will have 100.

I can’t use a file fish because I’m 95% sure my mantis shrimp will kill it…

 

[Mikeltee]

Oh geez. I didn't see that. Not many people have a mantis. That's pretty cool. I'd just leave them be or plug them with epoxy. Like I said if you mess with them they spread like wildfire. I used to have hundreds until I got a filefish.

 

[Itsadeepbluesea]

I would try to remove them. In my experiences, they just continue to appear. The method I recommend is taking an insulin syringe, fill it with lemon juice concentrate, then inject it right into the aiptasia. It works surprisingly well, however you do have to do it with each one individually.

 

[areefer01]

Some strange advise in this thread. Having said that taking care of it now is wise otherwise it could become a larger problem. Few ways but know up front buying any animal for utility first is unwise. They may, or may not, do what you purchased them for. So buy them because you want them if that makes sense. Some may starve if the natural food source is gone. Other tank inhabitants may eat item you purchased for utility (wrasses, peppermint shirmp vs Bergia).

You can:

• Manually remove rocks and replace with others. Let these dry out
• Use f-aiptasia
• Epoxy over or super glue
• Try a true peppermint shrimp
• Try a matted filefish (not heard a mantis going after those before but also never owned a mantis)
• Try Bergia (not a fan due to cost and starving once cleared)

Most of this has already been stated here within. Main thing to take away is if you don't handle it today, tomorrow, then next week it may be in your plumbing or sump or overflow, etc. My display is clear of it but my refugium, sump, overflow, and plumbing have it by the yard. I personally don't care because I have enough predators that eat it. Copperband butterfly, Milletseed Butterfly (yes, oddly enough this goes crazy for it), and lastly the heavy lifter, Biota matted filefish. So my display is clear always.

tl; dr - deal with it early so it won't become a problem later. If you can remove the rock today that may be the best that way it is easier to epoxy, add f-aiptasia, etc.