Aptasia infestation Killing corals

[qstorm]

No one said this hobby would be easy, I thought Quarantine would prevent stuff like this from happening. Since the purchase of a leather coral, which was dipped and QT about two weeks... I have contracted mushroom and aptasia. I had two baby ones and I thought I killed them with lime juice. I move the coral to a different location and all was well. Needless to say, went on vacation and came back to infestation of Aptasia. I have tried every thing and nothing seems to be working. I just ordered 23 Berghia from reef town and hope they will eradicate them.
What I didn't know is that these things kills corals. My Zoa garden is getting destroyed. My Gorniopora devoured, some of my acan, green star....Arrrg... I didn't think these things would grow this fast. One thing I can say is that my homemade food, produces rapid growth for aptasia, corals and fish

 

[Amboss72]

I have had clients with major aiptasia breakouts. My method for attack is as follows.
1. Inject aiptasia X or whatever you like that’s similar to the aiptasia x into the aiptasia that’s closest to your coral to prevent the coral from being stung.
2. Get some peppermint shrimp. I’ve had peppermint shrimp completely eliminate bad cases of aiptasia.
3. On some occasions I will use what’s commonly called the aiptasia eating filefish aka bristletail filefish.
I’ve never used the nudibranchs but swear by the peppermint shrimp.

 

[Mical]

I've had great success w/these - https://www.liveaquaria.com/product...aptive-bred-ora-?pcatid=3555&c=3352+3353+3555

Aiptasia is a form of anemone. When you irritate an anemone it splits. So when you kalk, AiptasiaX, laser, etc aiptasia - if you don't get it all you'll get twice as many.

 

[Amboss72]

Completely agree. I think my response to the question could easily be misunderstood due to poor sentence structure. What I meant was to initially try to kill the aiptasia closest to your corals while at the same time adding the peppermint shrimp as I don’t think peppermint shrimp discriminate which aiptasia to eat first. By no means would I rely on aiptasia x to treat an infestation. However I do think using the stuff just to eliminate the aiptasia closest to the corals would help decrease the likelihood of the coral being stung and give the peppermint shrimp time to knock the aiptasia out.

 

[qstorm]

I have had clients with major aiptasia breakouts. My method for attack is as follows.
1. Inject aiptasia X or whatever you like that’s similar to the aiptasia x into the aiptasia that’s closest to your coral to prevent the coral from being stung.
2. Get some peppermint shrimp. I’ve had peppermint shrimp completely eliminate bad cases of aiptasia.
3. On some occasions I will use what’s commonly called the aiptasia eating filefish aka bristletail filefish.
I’ve never used the nudibranchs but swear by the peppermint shrimp.

I have use Aiptasia X, didn't work. File fish ate one and that's because I zapped it and it float right in its path, other than that , it eats flakes, mysis shrimp and pellets.

 

[qstorm]

I've had great success w/these - https://www.liveaquaria.com/product...aptive-bred-ora-?pcatid=3555&c=3352+3353+3555

Aiptasia is a form of anemone. When you irritate an anemone it splits. So when you kalk, AiptasiaX, laser, etc aiptasia - if you don't get it all you'll get twice as many.

It doesn't eat it at all..only seen it eat once. I am going to introduce a copper band on Sunday and see what happens.

 

[qstorm]

Completely agree. I think my response to the question could easily be misunderstood due to poor sentence structure. What I meant was to initially try to kill the aiptasia closest to your corals while at the same time adding the peppermint shrimp as I don’t think peppermint shrimp discriminate which aiptasia to eat first. By no means would I rely on aiptasia x to treat an infestation. However I do think using the stuff just to eliminate the aiptasia closest to the corals would help decrease the likelihood of the coral being stung and give the peppermint shrimp time to knock the aiptasia out.

My biggest issue with peppermint is, I think my crosshatch is eating them. I have about 6 in the tank and I rarely see them...once in a while I will see one at night.

 

[Peace River]

I strongly recommend that you try F-Aiptasia Killer from @Frank's Tanks

There is no other product on the market that truly kills Aiptasia. Here are a couple of threads to hear some feedback about the product:
F-Aiptasia
F-Aiptaisa rocks!

 

[Amboss72]

Aiptasia eating filefish should be more appropriately named majano eating filefish. I’ve had them eliminate majanos from tanks. Crosshatch will definitely eat peppermint shrimp but peppermint shrimp hide extremely well. If you notice aiptasia going away the peppermint shrimp are still alive.

 

[Frank's Tanks]

I strongly recommend that you try F-Aiptasia Killer from @Frank's Tanks

There is no other product on the market that truly kills Aiptasia. Here are a couple of threads to hear some feedback about the product:
F-Aiptasia
F-Aiptaisa rocks!

Thank you so very much!! I appreciate the confidence in our product!

I pray that others who are doubtful for all the RIGHT reasons, would just give my product a try! Thanks, Peace River!!!!!

 

[slapshot]

No one said this hobby would be easy, I thought Quarantine would prevent stuff like this from happening. Since the purchase of a leather coral, which was dipped and QT about two weeks... I have contracted mushroom and aptasia. I had two baby ones and I thought I killed them with lime juice. I move the coral to a different location and all was well. Needless to say, went on vacation and came back to infestation of Aptasia. I have tried every thing and nothing seems to be working. I just ordered 23 Berghia from reef town and hope they will eradicate them.
What I didn't know is that these things kills corals. My Zoa garden is getting destroyed. My Gorniopora devoured, some of my acan, green star....Arrrg... I didn't think these things would grow this fast. One thing I can say is that my homemade food, produces rapid growth for aptasia, corals and fish

I had the same problem. Finally after trying everything else I put 12 peppermints in my 150. After a couple of weeks they were all gone.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Industry's hidden secret is the KLEINI Butterfly. It is beautiful, eats aptasia like candy, after aptasia gone, eats all food readily and does not bother coral. I had a small breakout in my 93 cube and it got rid of them all in 5 days !!

 

[Aframereef]

I did about 10 from reef town in February and they are just now really starting to go away. I setup a seperare tank to grow babies. Just put about 50 in the tank this week.

 

[Admann]

Berghia, peppermint shrimp and a mini- majano wand solved mine with no chemical injection, these 3 together eliminated aptasia and majanos, not quickly but lastingly effective. If I had to guess probably only 2 of the 4 peppermints were actually eating the aptasia, the 2 got a very dark burgundy color when there was aptasia present and they were eating it. As spon as the aptasia appeared to be gone the berghia of course disappeated and the peppermints slowly 1 by 1. But no aptasia since, that has been about a year. Oh the berghia and peps won't remove the majanos, the wand did all that.

 

[Amboss72]

I’ve also used Klein’s butterfly. The one I used definitely did eat aiptasia but then unfortunately it started taking out other corals..

 

[bwp]

I had a fairly bad aptasia infestation and tried a bunch of things including Berghia and filefish with limited success. The Berghia did a decent job, but they seemed to have a hard time getting to all parts of the tank (230g) without getting nipped by some fish. They also seemed to have trouble with high flow areas in the tank. The filefish seemed to help, but I ultimately realized that he was also snacking on coral (especially LPS) and seemed to like them better than the aptasia.
My best success has been peppermint shrimp. I purchased a number of them (5-6) every time I went to the LFS and I put a 2-3 in my sump to handle the pests down there and then put the remainder in my display. Aptasia just started steadily disappearing ! Like others have mentioned, the peppermint shrimp hide in the rocks really well and I rarely see them during the day, but they are busy at night!

My system is a 230G mixed reef display with ~70g sump with refugium (chaeto). I have a mix of fish including a yellow tang, clownfish, wrasses (choris, leopard), bicolor blenny, springeri damsel, mandarin goby, pipefish, flame hawkfish, and a ~3ft snowflake eel.


-Bryan

 

[slapshot]

Industry's hidden secret is the KLEINI Butterfly. It is beautiful, eats aptasia like candy, after aptasia gone, eats all food readily and does not bother coral. I had a small breakout in my 93 cube and it got rid of them all in 5 days !!

I tried that. He started eating my coral. Any fish is capable of that, my misfortune

 

[reefwiser]

One could also use some reef Epoxy to cover the aphasia over thus killing them for good.

 

[Sparky88]

Pepermint worked for me. 6 in a 180 after I spoted 6 or so. Gone in two weeks

 

[qstorm]

I tried that. He started eating my coral. Any fish is capable of that, my misfortune

Did he ate the Aiptasia as well?