Aiptasia Take Over

[Griff]

I have aiptasia taking iver my reefer 525xl. I know about all the methods of combating them. Have been using aiptasia x but they just keep spreading. Tank is lps and sps.
I have the following fish.

Yellow tang
Hippo tang
2 clowns
Orange spot blennie
1 blood shrimp
2 skunk cleaners

I'd like to add a peppermint shrimp but am concerned he'll go after my prized lps

Nudibranchs I do plan on adding but how many do you think?

Would you add the peppermint shrimp?

 

[Travis Stewart]

I have aiptasia taking iver my reefer 525xl. I know about all the methods of combating them. Have been using aiptasia x but they just keep spreading. Tank is lps and sps.
I have the following fish.

Yellow tang
Hippo tang
2 clowns
Orange spot blennie
1 blood shrimp
2 skunk cleaners

I'd like to add a peppermint shrimp but am concerned he'll go after my prized lps

Nudibranchs I do plan on adding but how many do you think?

Would you add the peppermint shrimp?

I did catch mine messing with some coral but he def cleaned house on all aiptasia before hand. After I noticed them all gone, I made a bottle trap and put some frozen food in it over night and he was caught the next morning. Good luck

 

[Acrostick]

Yeah aptasia X did nothing to mine also. I mixed a kalk paste and injected it into them yesterday and we will see how it goes.

 

[Branespikin]

Im having same issue. I added just one peppermint because was scared he might attack my lps but havent seen him since. Got to be 3 weeks now and nothing. Just ordered berghias from salty underground. They have a calculator on their site to see how much u need. I tried berghias before they did ge rid of a bunch but then disappeared. This time im adding 25 to my tank the site recommends 10 but im putting more in there. Last time i put 6. After they do the job ill try and catch and pass them along.

 

[Scurvy]

Bergias definitely seem to be best bet but get pricey pretty quick. AiptaisaX IME just makes them spread quicker.

Pepermints are mostly nocturnal. I have 6-8 so I see them occasionally but went months when there was only one. They havent touched any aiptasia or my corals. Some say you need to not feed the tank and when hungry enough theyll finally go for the aiptasia...

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

I ordered 3 peppermint from Unique Corals, and that solved my aiptasia issue. What kind of lps do you have that you're worried about them attacking? IME they don't bother lps until after they've taken care of tree aiptasia, but I've not had that be an issue for me personally...mine haven't bothered my lps at all thankfully. If they ever do, I'll just set a trap and pull em out.

 

[Salty1962]

I got @ 4 Peppermint Shrimp and @4 Berghia (Aeolidiella) Nudibranchs and my problem was fixed in @3-4 weeks. My overflow was filled with them. I haven't noticed my Peppermints bothering any of my LPS but are a pain when trying to feed them at night. Keep stealing the food from the LPS!;Shifty

 

[Branespikin]

I ordered 3 peppermint from Unique Corals, and that solved my aiptasia issue. What kind of lps do you have that you're worried about them attacking? IME they don't bother lps until after they've taken care of tree aiptasia, but I've not had that be an issue for me personally...mine haven't bothered my lps at all thankfully. If they ever do, I'll just set a trap and pull em out.

I hear they like to munch on Acans especially the mai tais. Then some speckled kraks for desert

 

[Ubergroover]

+1 on the pepermints...I used aiptasia x things got worse. I have three peppermints and that problem went away. I have a LPS tank and they have never bothered anything except the emerald crab. I had probably 10 glass anemones. within a week all gone.

 

[Bama-Reefer]

If I had aiptasia and Verm snails on some rock would they all die off if I set them out in the sun for a few days to dry out? And I know bacteria and stuff will do the rock will be going back into a diff tank build not yet cycled just have a few good looking rocks I wanna move over and dnt wanna risk moving these pests too

 

[Reef Dude]

Over my 8 years of reefing, aptasia have been a constant struggle. I've tried many different methods mentioned above with varying degrees of success. However, I recently used Berghai Nudibranchs (ordered from Salty Underground), and I am finally aptaisia free.

I added 8 to my 50 gallon, and I had hundreds if not over a thousand aptaisia in my tank, overflow, and sump. At first, I never saw the Berghai's and the aptasia seemed to be getting worse, so I thought the berghai's were another failed attempt. However, after a month or so (be patient) I started seeing them out and around the tank, especially at night. The next thing I knew I had like 50 berghai's in my tank, and they would literally clean large rocks completely free of aptasia overnight.

I would recommend berghai's highly. I would suggest you use Salty Underground's calculator to determine how many you need, but seriously these will reproduce in your tank and you will end up with many more than you bought. I would recommend you read their website thoroughly and follow instructions including removing any predators such as peppermint shrimp that could eat the berghai's. I was hesitant to use them because they are a costly option, but it was well worth it. They cleaned every nook, cranny, and crevice of aptasia.

 

[Griff]

Will they eat them out of the sand bed too?

 

[Reef Dude]

Will they eat them out of the sand bed too?

I would assume so. I didn't have any growing out of the actual sand, although I had some attached to base/bottom of rocks on the sand. The Berghai's crawl across the sand, so I do not see any reason why they wouldn't eat aptasia growing in the sand.

 

[Reef of Fillory]

I had some aiptasia come in from some live rock/corals I bought from a LFS. I used aiptasia X and it pretty much killed them off within a week. I also bought a peppermint shrimp afterwards to assure that they would not show up again. I had aiptasia everywhere in my tank, and now I couldn't find one if I tried.

My peppermint is very aggressive though, so i've been thinking of getting rid of him for a cleaner shrimp or some other inverts. Added some emerald crabs and a few hermits, my peppermint killed them all... =(

One thing about the aiptasia X is to make sure you get them to "close" around the needle of the syringe, then blast them with the stuff [pumps off for ~5-10minutes]. Worked great for me, didn't have to treat any of them twice [unless they receeded into the hole before I could cover the 'mouth' with the aiptasia X]

Good luck!