Aiptasia treatment success or failure.... A poll

[Chris Spaulding]

I had about 10 that were in a very hard spot to get to and they were damaging a couple of SPS. I got 5 Bergas and in about 2 weeks no sign of aptasia . I am keeping an eye out for the bergs so I can hopefully rehome them so they do not starve

 

[fLajNuT]

I have a 75 gallon tank and did a bunch of research on success and fail stories and ended up buying 4 medium Berghia Nudibranchs. Within a week my 50 Aiptasia were gone. The only thing I felt really bad about was that once all the Aiptasia was gone I could not find them to remove them to give to someone else so they just ended up dying. But these guys do work.

 

[Steph72]

I just tried Aiptasia X for the first time...fingers crossed that it works for me. I hate these things...why can’t corals and fish be as adaptable as they are?!?!

 

[jeffchapok]

I haven't seen a single aiptasia since I added a filefish a couple of weeks ago. Until then, I was finding 2 or 3 new ones per week.

Unfortunately, it also killed all my RFAs. At least I only had 3 of them.

 

[Joe Rice]

I haven't seen a single aiptasia since I added a filefish a couple of weeks ago. Until then, I was finding 2 or 3 new ones per week.

Unfortunately, it also killed all my RFAs. At least I only had 3 of them.

RFA?

 

[jeffchapok]

RFA?

Rock flower anemones

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

I voted berghias bc that's what I used most recently and had the best success with. However, I've also used peppermint shrimp which were hit and miss but ultimately did the job...and then ate my rock anemones. I've tried file fish, but he ignored the aiptasia...probably fed too well. Tried chemicals but those always just seemed to multiply the evil nems.

 

[jaxteller007]

Has anyone tried putting their Berghia in their overflows? If so how did you do it? I just got some today and am in the process of acclimating them. By far the most significant outbreaks of Aiptasia in our tank right now are in our overflows. I just don't know how to place any of the Berghia's in there. I'm worried if i try to place them directly on top of an aiptasia, they will get stung/killed but i can't just drop them in the overflow and let them swim can I?

 

[User1]

Has anyone tried putting their Berghia in their overflows? If so how did you do it? I just got some today and am in the process of acclimating them. By far the most significant outbreaks of Aiptasia in our tank right now are in our overflows. I just don't know how to place any of the Berghia's in there. I'm worried if i try to place them directly on top of an aiptasia, they will get stung/killed but i can't just drop them in the overflow and let them swim can I?

I believe your worry is justified. Not that you needed it Not having owned any before but have considered them in the past and actually just this week I am in a similar situation. Display has a few but overflow and sump the most. The way I've thought about it is turning off all the pumps, split the order, acclimate accordingly, and place half near the larger pest and the other half in the overflow.

As to where in the overflow I would reach in and juggle around a few pieces of rubble that I keep in there so they can start their journey there. My take is once they settle in they can withstand the overflow volume or so I hope. If I think they are moving around a bit too much then I'll just dial back my returns and let the display tank powerheads do the work.

Slow flow through sump is my general take anyway as it gives the skimmer more time to run through the water. Too fast and it is a lot of noise and skimmer is less efficient. At least in my opinion. My thought in this is that the berghia will work their way through the system to sump or back to display over the weir.

I do not know how the berghia find the pests. Is it like taking a walk or are they using smell or some other sense. I know not but my fear in my display is that I have pukani rock and it has a lot of nooks and crannies so they will be moving around for a long, long while.

Where did you find yours? Most of the places I looked are out. My display picked up again because I got rid of my matted filefish after he went through my frogspawn

 

[jaxteller007]

I believe your worry is justified. Not that you needed it Not having owned any before but have considered them in the past and actually just this week I am in a similar situation. Display has a few but overflow and sump the most. The way I've thought about it is turning off all the pumps, split the order, acclimate accordingly, and place half near the larger pest and the other half in the overflow.

As to where in the overflow I would reach in and juggle around a few pieces of rubble that I keep in there so they can start their journey there. My take is once they settle in they can withstand the overflow volume or so I hope. If I think they are moving around a bit too much then I'll just dial back my returns and let the display tank powerheads do the work.

Slow flow through sump is my general take anyway as it gives the skimmer more time to run through the water. Too fast and it is a lot of noise and skimmer is less efficient. At least in my opinion. My thought in this is that the berghia will work their way through the system to sump or back to display over the weir.

I do not know how the berghia find the pests. Is it like taking a walk or are they using smell or some other sense. I know not but my fear in my display is that I have pukani rock and it has a lot of nooks and crannies so they will be moving around for a long, long while.

Where did you find yours? Most of the places I looked are out. My display picked up again because I got rid of my matted filefish after he went through my frogspawn

I'm not worried about the flow in my overflows, but I don't currently have any live rock rubble in there. May have to try and set a couple pieces and go for it.
As far as how they find it....
"The Berghia nudibranch is also designed to eradicate Aiptasia. The Berghia nudibranch possess specialized sensory organs called rhinophores that are able to chemically detect Aiptasia anemones. This allows the Berghia to target in on Aiptasia, even those anemones too small to be readily seen."

The same person i get my livestock placed a big order for them for a client's tank of his and he ordered some extra for me. Think he got them from salty underground.

 

[User1]

I'm not worried about the flow in my overflows, but I don't currently have any live rock rubble in there. May have to try and set a couple pieces and go for it.
As far as how they find it....
"The Berghia nudibranch is also designed to eradicate Aiptasia. The Berghia nudibranch possess specialized sensory organs called rhinophores that are able to chemically detect Aiptasia anemones. This allows the Berghia to target in on Aiptasia, even those anemones too small to be readily seen."

The same person i get my livestock placed a big order for them for a client's tank of his and he ordered some extra for me. Think he got them from salty underground.

Makes sense.

In my over flow since it is deep I threw in some rubble and treat it like a mini fuge. If you have a few pieces of rock maybe try that as you are thinking.

 

[ThRoewer]

Berghia do best with little to no flow. You would have to turn the return pump off or install a temporary alternative overflow while plugging the main overflow. But it could be a week or more for them to do their job.
In a case like this it may be faster and less disruptive to plug the overflow to bleach it for 24h and then neutralize the bleach with sodium thiosulfate. After that drain the water in the overflow and overflow plumbing into a bucket and dump it - not because of the bleach and thio but because of all the dead and dissolved organic matter.

 

[Joe Rice]

Has anyone tried putting their Berghia in their overflows? If so how did you do it? I just got some today and am in the process of acclimating them. By far the most significant outbreaks of Aiptasia in our tank right now are in our overflows. I just don't know how to place any of the Berghia's in there. I'm worried if i try to place them directly on top of an aiptasia, they will get stung/killed but i can't just drop them in the overflow and let them swim can I?

I just added 6 berghia to my overflow a couple of weeks ago. I have some pvc plumbing in there with a flat section on top where I could place them with the pipette that came with them. I placed them on the pvc that's under water, of course.

After a couple weeks it seems like they've reduced the Aiptasia population by about 50%. I've also seen several egg spirals along the side but no babies that I've spotted so far. Actually took one out of the overflow and added it to the refugium where my caulerpa is filled with Aiptasia as well.

I tried Berghias in the main tank and saw a few Aiptasia disappear near where I'd put them in, but then nothing. Something ate those Berghias, I suspect. Put 2 filefish and a Klein Butterfly in the tank and they eliminated the Aiptasia in a week.

 

[MnFish1]

I would suggest making it so there is no light in your overflow - this MIGHT help control it - even though aiptasia can grow in low light - I do not believe it will grow in 'darkness'.

 

[Joe Rice]

I would suggest making it so there is no light in your overflow - this MIGHT help control it - even though aiptasia can grow in low light - I do not believe it will grow in 'darkness'.

I covered mine at some point and just the light coming in through the notches seemed to allow them to thrive. Perhaps if the overflow had been covered from the get-go they might not have gotten a foothold though.

 

[MPERL]

Has anyone had success with Burghia eating Manjano. I used Manjano Wand several times and all that did was create an explosion of Manjano. I now have a tank full of very happy plump Manjano

 

[tony'stank]

Only thing that worked for me peppermint shrimp after failed file fish and Beria nudibranch

 

[Greengny]

Has anyone had success with Burghia eating Manjano. I used Manjano Wand several times and all that did was create an explosion of Manjano. I now have a tank full of very happy plump Manjano

Hi. From my experience the nudis won’t touch the manjano. I had a crew in a small tank wipe out the aptasia and I was left with 4 manjanos.

 

[Greengny]

After 1 month of introduction, Freddie, the File Fish, developed a taste for aiptasia. He/she is now my most prized possession, after at least 50 hours of trying to eliminate this reef menace. So far a model citizen. And he/she is handsome/beautiful.
Over the years, I’ve had a couple of other Freddies, who had 0 interest in aiptasia.

 

[Smprc]

I've used nudis twice. The challenge with them is that it's pricey. They absolutely work, but if you have aiptasia in areas they can't get too ie sump, overflow, pipes etc...then its only a matter of time before you see them in the tank. I also use aptasia X for spot removal...but I feel once you have them you will need a natural predator too keep them in check. Hopefully you can get lucky with a "freddie" or a butterfly and/or a "peppie".