Aiptasia or Me, At wits end.

[boehm742]

Well, as the title says, i am absolutely fed up with these things in my 180 sps tank. What started with one what seems like years ago (tanks 6 years old) has now grown to around 40 and counting. I originally brushed it off and didnt think much of it(mistake) and when i felt there were getting to be to many i took the kalk paste approach. I went around and blasted every last one. Viola! They were gone! errrrr... atleast for a day or two and they popped right back out of there original holes. On top of that a week or so later I feel i irritated them to the point of multiplying by 2 fold. Ive read similiar results with Aiptasia X in that the tiny pieces when they implode spread and root elsewhere.

Fast forward a couple weeks and about 2 months ago i bought a Aiptasia Eating Filefish (Acreichthys tomentosus) from liveaquria. Man does this thing eat! Everything except the aiptasia! Be it my veggie clip or anything i throw in there. Ive attempted to reduce feeding the rest of the fish in hopes that maybe if hes hungry enough he will catch a taste for Aiptasia but no luck over the last month. Maybe im not being patient enough?

Ive tried a copperband but it didn't make it to the DT, but that's not going to happen unless i remove my Sailfin judging by what i saw when the sailfin saw him in the QT tank next to my display. Had to ultimately block the view of the sailfin or he was constantly trying to find a way to get in the QT with the CB.

I have not tried peppermint shrimp. This is probably my next option or last chance? but not sure how that will go with my radiant wrasse.

What would you do? Its far from being overrun by this nasty pest but it is disheartening looking into my reef everyday with the thought in the back of my head of how bad will this get being i cant disassemble the rockwork with out throwing in the towel. Im all ears here, this reef runs in my blood.

 

[Coralick]

Definitely peppermint shrimp get a whole bunch of them on sale

 

[wattson]

pep shrimp and copperband butterfly..problem solved..
then no problem,,get busy getting these two and get it done..
easy peasy

 

[Coralick]

Also if u have a smoll rock that has some aptasia on it, divide half of the shrimp goes straight to your tank, second half in a small breeder box with that rock

 

[Coralick]

Try not too feed as much so just the fish gets the food and no leftover, then peppermint will go after aptasia, the ones in breeder box only released once they cleaned that little rock of aptasia

 

[HB AL]

Aiptasia x seems to work fine for me I use it every couple months or so. They don’t really bug me that much they don’t seem to cause any issues like flatworms or nudis, so really don’t worry about them. I have a lot of rock and coral so I only deal with the ones accessible. I would just chill out a little they aren’t gonna kill all your corals atleast they don’t kill mine. If I did want to eradicate them I would use those nudis but my dang wrasse for sure would eat them. Try the nudis that eat them. If you zoom in you can see em maybe but I don’t sweat them.

 

[Coralick]

Also when u introduce the peps to your tank, either place them with most infestation of aptasia or glide trough pvc pipe

 

[boehm742]

Aiptasia x seems to work fine for me I use it every couple months or so. They don’t really bug me that much they don’t seem to cause any issues like flatworms or nudis, so really don’t worry about them. I have a lot of rock and coral so I only deal with the ones accessible. I would just chill out a little they aren’t gonna kill all your corals atleast they don’t kill mine. If I did want to eradicate them I would use those nudis but my dang wrasse for sure would eat them. Try the nudis that eat them. If you zoom in you can see em maybe but I don’t sweat them.

I hear ya, i dont notice them doing much harm i just dont want them to turn into the nightmare of tanks that are absolutely covered in them. Thanks for the assurance. Great looking tank!

 

[TriggerFinger]

Peppermints worked for me. I only had a few small ones (that I know of) and I went straight to the lfs looking for a solution. One store by me has a small tank with only peps and they only get fed Aiptasia rocks. They clean the rock and the store moves the clean rock to another tank and gives them a new infested one. I watched the two I got eat the Aiptasia and *knock on wood* I’ve not seen anymore in my tank for about 6 weeks.

 

[Matt Carden]

I had a few small ones and two big ones. I got Peppermint Shrimp from LA. All the small ones are gone but the two big ones are still around but I kinda like them. Just as long as the Peps keep killing the babies I'll leave the big ones alone.

 

[Phil D.]

100% guarantee method to get rid of them are Berghia Nudibranchs. They eat Aiptasia exclusively!! They will hunt them down and get every last scrap. Only thing is, then you'll have to catch them and pass them on to someone with Aiptasia as they won't eat anything else.

 

[jtietz]

Aptasia x works great. After you use it all make your own kalk paste in the used tubes. It will last a good while and not go bad for a while. As for natural removal i vote for a matted file fish (leather jacket file) worked great for me. I had a paired in my 210 mixed reef and the destroyed the aptasia and left all corals alone.

 

[Billldg]

Agree with @Phil D, I just put some Bergia nudis in my tank and the aptasia is slowly starting to disappear. I plan on buying more, and when they r done they simply die off. I'm not going to try and catch them as right now I dont even see the silent assassins. If and when they get bigger then I may try and catch them.

 

[Coral Keeper]

I say Berghia Nudibranchs ALL THE WAY! I've have a crazy outbreak of aptasia in the past to the point where it was killing my corals.. my tank had hundreds of aptasia.. in the overflow, pipes, sump you name It! Bought 10 or so Berghia Nudibranchs for my 120 and over 2 months, they destroyed every aptasia, even in the pipes and sump!!! Never say an a ptasia ever since and it's been 6 months and counting

 

[boehm742]

Aptasia x works great. After you use it all make your own kalk paste in the used tubes. It will last a good while and not go bad for a while. As for natural removal i vote for a matted file fish (leather jacket file) worked great for me. I had a paired in my 210 mixed reef and the destroyed the aptasia and left all corals alone.

Wish i had the luck with my filefish LOL. He eats alright, everything but the aiptasia so far. Maybe someday tho, he has been a ideal reef friendly fish.

 

[boehm742]

Agree with @Phil D, I just put some Bergia nudis in my tank and the aptasia is slowly starting to disappear. I plan on buying more, and when they r done they simply die off. I'm not going to try and catch them as right now I dont even see the silent assassins. If and when they get bigger then I may try and catch them.

Thanks for the suggestion! Where is everyone finding these online? I cant find them readily available or am i just overlooking something?

 

[MrObscura]

I personally wouldn't go with peppermint shrimp, there's too much of a risk with them going after corals.

Id either just hit them with aptasia x as I spot them, which is what I do, but then I only have a 10g nano. Or I'd get some aiptasia eating nudis. Aptasia are literally the only thing they eat, so it's the one sure way to knock out all of them.

 

[rossco]

I have spent over 500 dollars on berghias in the past in 2 separate orders. First time, they did a decent job, but died off before eating every last aiptasia. A year and a half later my display was literally infested. Second order did no good at all, they must have all died from the get go.

I was going to go with a matted filefish (also known as the aiptasia eating filefish) and the two at the LFS did not eat aiptasia in their holding tank. So I skipped them.

I had resisted peppermint shrimp because they have a tendency to poach food out of the mouth of LPS after spot feeding. I have very few LPS these days, not by choice but had some sort of infection that wiped most of my acans and chalices out, so in desperation I bought 8 peppermint shrimp for my 210. A month later, I could not find a single aiptasia and am still aptasia free.

Find a small piece of rubble with aiptasia on it and take it with you to the LFS. If the LFS is cool like mine, they will let you drop the rubble in the peppermint shrimp tank and you can target and catch the shrimp that go for the aiptasia. If they won't let you, the variety of peppermint shrimp that "dance" back and forth while resting seem to do a better job.

 

[AtlCPA]

I have three bad experiences with preps and one with file fish. Three times they start eating my corals and the other time my wrasse destroyed the shrimp.

Seems like nudies is the way to go

 

[Billldg]

Thanks for the suggestion! Where is everyone finding these online? I cant find them readily available or am i just overlooking something?

I just got some from salty underground, about to buy more, they were recently on sale and I missed it, so I could only afford 8 at the time, but I will buy another 8. U really don't see them after you release them in your tank, but steadily the aptasia is disappearing.

But make sure you read their info, they will let you know what will eat the bergia nudis.

Also, use their calculator, and then add a couple more if you can, most times people aren't honest about the infestation and dont get enough, I would error on the side of caution and get a few more. I have a 120 gal tank with, what I would say a med infestation and it recommended 9 med sized bergia, I bought 8 but killed 3 accidentally, so i currently have 5 in the tank and I see the aptasia disappearing, I gonna buy 8 more, the work better in packs.