Aptasia Invasion

fraggin corals · Mar 27, 2022

My 65 gallon sps tank is over run by Aptasia and I do mean over run. I estimate thousands. I was considering just breaking the tank down to clean and restart but I do not have a way to keep the sps that are in the tank. How effective would the Berghia nudis be in a reef with high flow? The fish population includes Bengaii Cardinals, Blue Chromis, and a purple pseudochromis. Any issues with these fish eating the nudis?

Oerussc · Mar 27, 2022

Have you tried a filefish? Or, a butterfly? I have one of each in my tanks and they both knocked out large infestations.

TnFishwater98 · Mar 27, 2022

fraggin corals said:
My 65 gallon sps tank is over run by Aptasia and I do mean over run. I estimate thousands. I was considering just breaking the tank down to clean and restart but I do not have a way to keep the sps that are in the tank. How effective would the Berghia nudis be in a reef with high flow? The fish population includes Bengaii Cardinals, Blue Chromis, and a purple pseudochromis. Any issues with these fish eating the nudis?

Pics

monkeyCmonkeyDo · Mar 28, 2022

I'm gonna add a butterfly fish when I upgrade just for the aptasia. Pray my lps and softies make it lol.
D

Sleeping Giant · Mar 28, 2022

Do you still qt the new file fish?

pecan2phat · Mar 28, 2022

I bought a captive bred aiptasia eating filefish from Biota in the hope it would rid my tank of aiptasia and 14 months later, he hasn't touched any.
In the last decade, I've tried 3 of them in different tanks and only one did it's job so hit or miss IME.

Oerussc · Mar 28, 2022

I have had luck with both fish. The common thought with the filefish is, they take time to get a taste for aptasia. 14 months without eating them means it’s time to go get another one. They are relatively proven to eradicate aptasia. Mine starting eating after a month and to date I have never witnessed it eat aptasia. I just know they disappeared. The butterfly is hit or miss to get them to eat to begin with AND live. This is a hard fish to acclimate to a reef tank. I got mine to eat brine shrimp in quarantine and that is all it eats from feedings. It ignores mysis and all other foods I put in the tank. I have made sure to always feed brine shrimp to it. All of my fish are quarantined prior to introduction in the community tanks.

pecan2phat · Mar 28, 2022

Yep he was pulled out last week and a dozen peppermint shrimps went in.
FWIW, the filefish also picked at SPS ;Facepalm

Oerussc · Mar 28, 2022

pecan2phat said:
Yep he was pulled out last week and a dozen peppermint shrimps went in.
FWIW, the filefish also picked at SPS ;Facepalm

I love the peps, my wrasse eats them though.

pecan2phat · Mar 28, 2022

Same here, I had to pull a Mystery and Orange back at the same time before the peps went in.

pecan2phat · Mar 28, 2022

For the OP:
I asked a question about Berghia a while back also trying to see how they would do in a tank with powerheads and whether they go down overflow grates and most of the answers I received was that the larger ones do okay but a few answers were they never saw the Berghias again.

Hairyteeth · Mar 28, 2022

Berghias can’t get every where in super flow..8” from a mp10 on a rock, nope….they do go down drain and in power heads as well as lps eat them sometimes, lobo I’m talking to you…
I think the bigger the tank the better, in the nano they seem to end up in my pumps quickly as they don’t have to go far