aiptasia Start over or not

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Six peppermints did the trick for my 125 mixed reef
 
Top Shelf Aquatics
Has anybody heard of this or used this for aiptasia? Found it in Marine Depot.
Majano Wand Aiptasia & Majano Eliminator
 
Don't start over. You'll probably have them again some day. There is no simple cure. Every tank, reefer and aiptasia eating creature is different. Here is my experience. I had about 6 that I could see in my DT and started treating for a year or so but never beat them. It's an eye level built-in that I need to get a ladder to access so manual efforts were difficult. I tried a filefish and he never really ate anything and eventually died. My frag tank shared the sump with my DT and one day I noticed dozens in it. I tried a second file fish and it did not eat any for weeks. I tried starving him and within days the frag tank was aiptasia free. I moved the frags I wanted to keep to the DT along with the file fish and I haven't seen an aiptasia in 6 mo. I tore down the frag tank and the file fish has been in the DT ever since. He did nip on some coral at first but better now. Not a perfect solution but better than a tear down IMO.
 
Tidal Gardens
Go to bulk reef supply and watch the video 20 aptaisia mistakes. Bottomline, you have to use multiple attack methods. Berghia, peppermint shrimp, kale or aptasia X file fish or butterflies. Hit the sump overflow and dt. You can keep them at bay, but most likely you will always get them.
 
Read some pages but got "bored". For pete's sake get some peppermint shrimp from your LFS not Petco. The nudibranches work but are a. TINY, how to find to share with friends when job done and trying to save them before they die. b. Very expensive for what you get. c. die if they've done their job. I had more than 100 aiptasia in a small tank and growing rapidly. Got some peppermint shrimp from Petco...nothing. Went to LFS in Seattle bought 3 and in 1 week ALL were gone and none since. Shrimp still around after a year ready to go if reappearance. Buy online ($7-14/ shrimp). IT DEPENDS WHERE THEY CAME FROM! (the shrimp) If from Cal or Gulf, probably a no go. If from east coast Florida...they're the one's that work. Aquacultured is ok as long as source is approriate and if they were exposed to aiptasia to start with. By the way, if only a few, just enjoy them. Only a problem if a lot. (By the way, my shrimp have not touched any of my corals) Locally, Copperbanded Butterflies are around $75. Hard to feed....had one 40 years ago and had to hand feed it.
 
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I have had best success with a filefish but if you have loads of coral this is a risk as they do like to nip at them or peppermint shrimps combined with aiptasia x.

peps tend to go for smaller aips and use aip x for the larger ones

what I have found is that you need sufficient numbers of peps, they are poor swimmers so will get pulled into wave makers in strong flow and it takes a long time to wipe out the aips. I suspect they go for smaller aips and spores and also those ones you cannot see as i have gone weeks without seeing them and they then pop out at night. Have 1 or 2 in a 120g say is not enough, imo, if you have them spread across the tank.

if you only have one or two then covering with epoxy can be effective.
 
I've had success twice with berghia nudibranchs from Salty Underground. They ate nearly every one.
I've had some success with peppermint shrimp. They knocked them back, but never eradicated them.
I've tried F'Aiptasia - it had similar results to thick kalk paste. They mostly killed them but some seem to survive.

I never had success with Aiptasia X.
I never had success ignoring them.

I'm currently aiptasia free.
 
Deltec
Texas Rick said:
Has anybody heard of this or used this for aiptasia? Found it in Marine Depot.
Majano Wand Aiptasia & Majano Eliminator
Click to expand...
had one. From 0-10 , I give it a 5.5.
The best defense for me is and will always be a Kleini Butterfly. Does not bother coral, ate every aptasia like candy, in fact forget what an aptasia looks like and eats all foods fed to tank
 
My opinion is the Berghia Nudibranch as well. I dealt with an aiptasia problem for quite a while and using the products that melt them is just frustrating and a never ending battle and amount of work. The nudibranch did the trick for my tank. You just have to be very patient because it takes them a number of weeks to multiply to numbers that will attack and wipe out all the aiptasia. I noticed a couple straggler aiptasia pop up afterwards and I just F-aiptasiad them to melt them and then haven't had another one appear for months now.
 
hyeclass said:
I am having aiptasia in my system what should I do

1. Kill the aiptasia
2. Start a new tank


Seems to me doesn’t matter how much you kill they still come back
Click to expand...

bergia works. Is expensive and may take two treatments and patience. I’ve been aiptasia free for about a year now. I had a bad infestation and did the first treatment. It apparently worked but about 12 months later I saw a few more. Treatment 2 a 12 months later no sign of aiptasia. I also the second time did a through cleaning of the sump and overflow, areas the bergia can’t reach.

don’t try chemicals. That will cause them to spread like wildfire.
 
nhlives said:
bergia works. Is expensive and may take two treatments and patience. I’ve been aiptasia free for about a year now. I had a bad infestation and did the first treatment. It apparently worked but about 12 months later I saw a few more. Treatment 2 a 12 months later no sign of aiptasia. I also the second time did a through cleaning of the sump and overflow, areas the bergia can’t reach.

don’t try chemicals. That will cause them to spread like wildfire.
Click to expand...


What have you done with bergia, after everything aiptasia was killed
 
Avast
I have added 5 berghia to a 90gal reef in January and only now am I starting to see the berghia get to work. It takes time for them to settle in and breed. I thought that they had all been eaten by my fish and apatasia as they are big ones some nearly 1-2" in diameter. I didn't notice any berghia after the first night I put them in and was getting really worried but as I walked past the tank a few weeks ago I noticed one by chance coming out of a hole and go searching. The excitement I felt was like a child at Christmas morning I kid you not. My tank has hundreds of apatasia that I can see not counting the ones I can't and I think that's what the berghia where eating first. ,The small ones to build up their strength and multiply. It's only when the berghia reach mass population is when you start to see the change in numbers of apatasia. Or so I was told be the supplier who to be very knowledgeable about their habits. I have s good ways to go yet but they keep at it. Don't give up nature has a solution for everything.
 
Emerald reefer said:
I have added 5 berghia to a 90gal reef in January and only now am I starting to see the berghia get to work. It takes time for them to settle in and breed. I thought that they had all been eaten by my fish and apatasia as they are big ones some nearly 1-2" in diameter. I didn't notice any berghia after the first night I put them in and was getting really worried but as I walked past the tank a few weeks ago I noticed one by chance coming out of a hole and go searching. The excitement I felt was like a child at Christmas morning I kid you not. My tank has hundreds of apatasia that I can see not counting the ones I can't and I think that's what the berghia where eating first. ,The small ones to build up their strength and multiply. It's only when the berghia reach mass population is when you start to see the change in numbers of apatasia. Or so I was told be the supplier who to be very knowledgeable about their habits. I have s good ways to go yet but they keep at it. Don't give up nature has a solution for everything.
Click to expand...

I went head bought a peppermint shrimp hopping they will deal with apatasia I don’t have a lot of apatasia I would say less then 30 if this
berghia is crazy expansive I pay 50 for 5 shrimps
 
Dana Riddle said:
We grew Berghia nudis on a commercial scale at Aquatic Wildlife back in the 90's. They work well on small Aiptasia but they leave large ones alone. Peppermint shrimp work as long as Aiptasia are not out of control. Lately, I've used sodium hydroxide pellets to eradicate several large Aiptasia in my DT - Peppermint shrimp did not get rid of these. NaOH pellets can be bought on Amazon for less than $20.
Click to expand...
Do you just pour the pellets in the tank, or dissolve the pellets then inject it in the nasty buggers?
 
Top Shelf Aquatics
Jose Esteves said:
Do you just pour the pellets in the tank, or dissolve the pellets then inject it in the nasty buggers?
Click to expand...
Not sure why they said that, but they eat the big ones too. I had thousands of them, varying sizes and some massive. I bought 20 nudibranchs, put half in the sump and half in the display. They ate every last one of them.
 
Jose Esteves said:
Do you just pour the pellets in the tank, or dissolve the pellets then inject it in the nasty buggers?
Click to expand...
I use a Tunze 'picker' to drop a NaOH pellet on the anemones. Dollar Tree (or any dollar store) has a picker for $1, but they only last for a few weeks with routine use (they rust.)
 
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