Aiptasia Advice

[Hunter90 HD]

Whereabouts you based?? You got a local maidenhead aquatics? My local one is great and will hold a fish for me, cant hurt to ask, got another local reefer that can tank the wrasse for you??

Bristol and yeah I got 1 5min from home and another one about 20mins way, that's not a bad idea as I don't have a sump, that would be very helpful thanks, and yeah like you said ontop of that it is really hit and miss if they will start targeting corals too which I really don't want

 

[Venomike]

The nudis are so small that if they die off the negative impact is minimal but there are people that will take them off you, even your lfs as they are all flooded with aiptasia

 

[Hunter90 HD]

Fimefish are hit and miss, mine was in a week and demolished a zoa colony, persevered with him figured a misstep, the wrecked a acan, he went back, just saying

Yeah this is putting me off of filefish and i do have some zoas which I really don't want to get damaged, I brought a blennie and he went back because he was homing himself in one coral and was damaging the surface of the coral, now on the road to recovery, it is a pain to remove fish when you have aquascapping with lots of hiding places and places out of reach

 

[josephxsxn]

My vote is for Berghia Nudibranch, but they won't remove your problem forever, eventually they will starve and there will be some Aiptasia left and the cycle starts again... But boy if you have a big problem going on these guys will get you right so you can handle it with smaller solutions like Kalk paste.

 

[davidcalgary29]

Berghia nudibranch. I just bought some from them. Run the math on free shipping I think I bought 8 it was like $80 https://www.saltyunderground.com/8-berghia-nudibranch they ate everything. Nothing in the sump either I put 1 in there and at night when they eat if the tank is cleared use the pipette they provide and move it to the sump

They're usually $30 to $40 each up here. Add in another fifty bucks for shipping, and that amounts to quite an expensive purchase. I bought four earlier this year, but they haven't yet had much of an impact.

 

[austibella]

I didn't realize so many people had filefish that won't eat aiptasia yet went for the corals.i wonder if mine ate it because I put aiptasia in the quarentine tank for him to chew down on before putting him in the main tank I have him over a year might be 2 yrs can't remember and he doesn't mess with my corals. But when I have my hand in the tank cleaning he likes to nip my hand once in a while. Dame his teeth hurt.. guess it luck of the draw..

 

[AnemoneFan]

Iv never had a problem if you buy more they will get everything. I don’t see how they starve if there are still aiptasia left over. 1 won’t do it you need more. On this site they are only going to $12 each. You guys have had problems with nudis not eating everything?

 

[AnemoneFan]

They're usually $30 to $40 each up here. Add in another fifty bucks for shipping, and that amounts to quite an expensive purchase. I bought four earlier this year, but they haven't yet had much of an impact.

How big is your tank? I put 8 in on a 75gallon display and 30 gallon sump

 

[davidcalgary29]

I didn't realize so many people had filefish that won't eat aiptasia yet went for the corals.i wonder if mine ate it because I put aiptasia in the quarentine tank for him to chew down on before putting him in the main tank I have him over a year might be 2 yrs can't remember and he doesn't mess with my corals. But when I have my hand in the tank cleaning he likes to nip my hand once in a while. Dame his teeth hurt.. guess it luck of the draw..

The success rate is supposedly higher with wild-caught specimens. I'm sure that habituated specimens that have learned that coral is lunch keep recycling through the community, though, because people want to get rid of them, quickly, when they start to go after the pricey stuff. Those guys may have been "wild caught" years ago, but they're long past the point where aiptasia has become their preferred food source.

 

[davidcalgary29]

How big is your tank? I put 8 in on a 75gallon display and 30 gallon sump

Three in a 65g. Canadian sources are currently out of them, in any case, even if I did want to spend $200 on another order.

 

[austibella]

The success rate is supposedly higher with wild-caught specimens. I'm sure that habituated specimens that have learned that coral is lunch keep recycling through the community, though, because people want to get rid of them, quickly, when they start to go after the pricey stuff. Those guys may have been "wild caught" years ago, but they're long past the point where aiptasia has become their preferred food source.

Ok that makes sense mine came right out of the gulf he came up in the shrimp nets And he was hungry. So I had to quarentine him after I got him from the store. He eats anything I give him.matter of fact he has no manners he pushes the other fish away so I have to put food on both sides of the tank so everyone gets food.

 

[AnemoneFan]

This one is 8 for $103 with shipping. The key is to put more. I put 8 in 2 separate times and cleared everything in a 75 gallon. The second time I got them back I should have taken out the frag plug that had it on it. I won’t make that mistake again. Quarantining frags is necessary but that means 2 separate tanks plus 1 for fish qt so that’s 3 tanks for 0 problems

 

[Wyvern]

Molly Miller blennies reportedly eat aptasia, I can't verify yet, I got one aptasia in between my firework cloves and killed it with aptasia X, no aptasia respawns yet.

My MMB is cute as hell though, so if it doesn't work, you have a comical reef safe fish to laugh at.

 

[austibella]

Thanks @austibella , I did see some file fish on YouTube getting ride if aptasia and they literally get into every bit of the rock which no doubt there will be some suckers hiding under the caves of the rock etc...yeah they are not too expensive in the UK also I was going to buy one because they look pretty cool didn't know they are aptasia hunters, and thank you ! I will be visiting my lfs this weekend !

They also change color to whatever they are near.its pretty cool. He looks like a live rock then he goes down to the crush coral and blends in to that color. Some people have not had luck with them as I was reading post ask your fish supplier if he has seen the fish eat aptasia. What i did was quarentine mine for a few weeks with a rock that has aptasia on it so he will eat it then when he gets in your main tank he will look for it. Mine never ate any of my coral in the last few years but I saw post of people saying their filefish did so just keep an eye on him.

 

[austibella]

I can buy file fish at my lfs i am tempted to get a file fish and a peppermint shrimp and berghia but I have a yellow wrasse which would have a tasty snack on the berghia and shrimp so I think my only option is a file fish, problem is aiptasia is difficult because anything you put in there to combat it is not guaranteed reef safe but I am getting the feeling I don't have a choice and I will have monitor them to keep an eye on then then remove if they start at the lps and softies @austibella

I hear ya, I had to get a racoon butterfly fish to combat mojano anemone that took over my tank I tried everything only to end up with more majano. the racoon was unbelievable. Ate everyone of them I was so excited till he started eating my coral after the majano was gone.tried to catch him but he was so fast it was impossible. I was devastated. Then he kept nipping at my big anemone. My tomato clown got really mad and kept attacking him.then he kept nipping the anemone , guess it killed him and the next morning I found him dead. It was bitter sweet.was sad he died cause he really did a great job and I could have rehomed him.but glad he was gone cause I couldn't catch him and he was killing coral. So .there is always a chance they can live within a reef tank and behave. Or that chance they will nip at corals.we just never know. I wish there was a simple answer. what works in one tank may not work in another.. I hope it works out for you. My filefish worked out great for me. I have a wrass and filefish was my only option. the best of luck to you. Let us know the outcome..

 

[Tamberav]

I boil water on the stove then suck it up with a syringe (no needle) and melt the jerks. You can easily flood their hidey hole with the boiling water so that’s not an issue. Ofc you have to be able to reach them. You can even usually suck out the boiled mush guts by pulling back on the syringe. I have never seen them multiply in greater numbers from it like how some people say happens with the products you can buy.

Otherwise I like CCB but filefish would be my second choice. CCB just more reef safe from my experience.

 

[Coral Your World]

Was dealing with a few aiptasia that seemed to have popped up out of no where, one of which decided to park itself in the middle of a few of my scrambled egg zoas and was preventing them from fully opening. Grabbed a peppermint shrimp (which are hit or miss when it comes to aiptasia), and within 2/3 days, the few aiptasia I had spotted are completely gone and I see no signs of any other. I’ve had similar luck with peppermint shrimp in the past (all In nano aquariums) but know of others who haven’t been as lucky. Inexpensive shrimp so if compatible with your livestock, probably worth a shot.

 

[davidcalgary29]

I'm going to let the berghias do what they do -- and put the Aiptasia-X away for now -- as I just spent the past ten minutes watching two of them engaged in breeding on the top of a rock. Their mating ritual is certainly...acrobatic.

 

[Hunter90 HD]

My vote is for Berghia Nudibranch, but they won't remove your problem forever, eventually they will starve and there will be some Aiptasia left and the cycle starts again... But boy if you have a big problem going on these guys will get you right so you can handle it with smaller solutions like Kalk paste.

100% Agree, however I had only 3 small Aiptasia that i could easily get too so i managed to paste them up and remove one from my glass via a glass blade that i normally use for cleaning the glass and a siphon, my good these little blighters are a nuisance! lol thanks for your advise.. only problem with Nudibranch is they are hard to get hold of in the UK, there was one dealer i found but was like £60 for 3 of the Nudibranch and for something that will die off when the Aiptasia would die out i opted out for this approach

 

[Hunter90 HD]

They're usually $30 to $40 each up here. Add in another fifty bucks for shipping, and that amounts to quite an expensive purchase. I bought four earlier this year, but they haven't yet had much of an impact.

Very expensive Nudibranch but would definitely buy if i had a real big problem as they would survive for a while and i could pass on to another reefer who has Aiptasia problems