Aiptasia?

[FLipp]

so i've been having a big problem w aiptasia, i have probably about atleast 50 in the tank right now.
did it already get out of hand?
what should i do?
should i add peppermint shrimps, or a copperband?
i feel like the aiptasia x doesnt really work well.

any help please?

 

[Randy Holmes-Farley Verified Community Expert]

I had only marginal success with peppermints (even lots of big ones), but a Chelmon marginalis (a type of copperband butterfly) worked perfectly.

 

[702]

I had the problem a while back and added a matted file fish and he took care of all of them, I might of had 10 or so and when the job was done I scooped him out and sold him. to this day no aiptasia have returned.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Peppermint Shrimp are hit and miss, no tellin if they will work.
Matted Filefish
CopperBand Butterfly
Couple others in the Chelmonops class will do the same

 

[wowkingjames]

You can also try berghia nudibranch but do your research on that, IMO there expensive.

 

[Reefing Madness]

You can also try berghia nudibranch but do your research on that, IMO there expensive.

Not so much expensive as much as thats all they eat, and starve out once its all gone.

 

[MattinIdaho]

I tried a matted Filefish and within a week I couldnt see a single aptasia. Then he started in on acans. I pulled him out and obviously the aptasia had just retracted into the rock because it came back quickly. I think you may need to keep one in there if you do get one and hope he is well behaved. I've tried a Copperband but my Powder Blue killed it the first night.

 

[TheClark]

If you can get the rocks out, even part of them, a plumbing torch is quick. Burn em up and put the rock back. Once on top of the problem, adopt a no nonsense, kill it right away if you see it mentality. My 8 year old daughter is in charge of the aptasia x around here and she never lets one last a day. As a result we have very few.

Good luck, it can be frustrating!

 

[FLipp]

yeah i waas super frustated last night and started removing the rocks that had the most aiptasia.
im going to try a copperband first, and we'll go from there.

anybody else has tried torching the aiptasia away? lol im good w a torch.

 

[mrcoffee2]

Not so much expensive as much as thats all they eat, and starve out once its all gone.

$160 for 8 slugs 1/2 inch long is not expensive ? Not to mention just about any fish kills them haha so they are delicate too.

Thinking about it now I should get into the business of selling nudi's they really are easy to reproduce, i'd charge $5 a slug and become a millionare

 

[KeystoneAq]

I put lemon juice Ina container, heat it up to boiling in the microwave, fill a needle/syringe with it and stab the aiptasia with it. I only use about .5cc for each one. Works well as long as the aiptasia is open when you do it. You'll need to get them all in one day I think in order to stop them fr spreading. I also wonder if a blue spot puffer would help as mine seems to pick at anything small in the rocks like bubble algae.

 

[weissenfluh]

Can I see a few pics of apistasia so those of us new to the hobby know what it looks like

 

[KeystoneAq]

Here's one I stole off google

 

[weissenfluh]

Is it the green algae or the dark brown spots

 

[KeystoneAq]

It's the brown polyps with the long tentacles.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Is it the green algae or the dark brown spots

Here ya go.
Aiptasia Anemone - Information and Control Methods

 

[Archie]

i had the same problem as you had only got to a point that every live rock in my tank had atleast 10 of them.. i tried aiptasia x but they come back after the next couple of days. then i read you pick up the live rock with the aiptasia and spray the aiptasia with boiling water but after a couple of weeks, they come back again. So i tried using their natural predator. First was a medium chelmon rostratum but this was a miss as for 9 months, he never touched them. Then i traded him to my local petshop and got a chaetodon kleini. This one was eating around 20 an hour but couldnt let my LPS specially my dragon soul favia alone so he had to go out. The next was a matted filefish, but unlike my medoum rostratum, it never did help in my aiptasia problem. The last one i got sept last year is my Large rostratum which devoured every single one of them. To this day I am aiptasia free and I managed to ween this one to eat frozen artemia. Only ate mysis and gammarus before. In my experience, it's a hit and miss with every fish eventhough they are supposedly the natural predator of these. You just have to try with one and if it's a miss, trade it at your local pet store until you get just the right one. good luck

 

[weissenfluh]

Thank you for the pictures

 

[EdansClownHouse]

i had the same problem as you had only got to a point that every live rock in my tank had atleast 10 of them.. i tried aiptasia x but they come back after the next couple of days. then i read you pick up the live rock with the aiptasia and spray the aiptasia with boiling water but after a couple of weeks, they come back again. So i tried using their natural predator. First was a medium chelmon rostratum but this was a miss as for 9 months, he never touched them. Then i traded him to my local petshop and got a chaetodon kleini. This one was eating around 20 an hour but couldnt let my LPS specially my dragon soul favia alone so he had to go out. The next was a matted filefish, but unlike my medoum rostratum, it never did help in my aiptasia problem. The last one i got sept last year is my Large rostratum which devoured every single one of them. To this day I am aiptasia free and I managed to ween this one to eat frozen artemia. Only ate mysis and gammarus before. In my experience, it's a hit and miss with every fish eventhough they are supposedly the natural predator of these. You just have to try with one and if it's a miss, trade it at your local pet store until you get just the right one. good luck

Can you provide the full name to: rostratum? I'm trying to find the fish you are speaking of...but Google is showing all sorts of fish

 

[Archie]

opps.. i dont know why i wrote rostratum but its rostratus.. copperband butterflyfish.. choose wisely though, they better be eating frozen already at your local pet store before you buy them