Aptasia outbreak

Boiler13 · Oct 28, 2016

I have a sudden aptasia outbreak and I'm not sure how I want to get rid of it. I'm looking for some advice on the best way to go about this. I'm also open to new ideas.

I currently have a 75 gallon tank with a yellow tang, two clowns, purple striped dottyback, and a damsel. I have a coral banded shrimp, several snails, and hermits as a cleanup.

My thoughts are...
1. buy some peppermint shrimp and let them do it, but I'm afraid my coral band shrimp and dottyback will kill them.
2. buy a copperband butterfly. makes me nervous cause they are hard to get going. love the fish though.
3. buy aptasia X. putting chemicals in my tank make me nervous.

Also, if you know of anything that can kill those little pest starfish, that would be nice too! aptasia first though!

Boiler13 · Oct 28, 2016

Here is a couple shots of my tank as well.

Duke4Life · Oct 28, 2016

Going through this again myself. First time I used a combo of super glue, aiptasia x, and peppermints. Berghia nudibranches are the best bet but depending on where you can find them may be pricey.

billaras · Oct 28, 2016

using joe's juice in the past several times works fine for me

mcmunn93 · Oct 28, 2016

Get a copper band fish there brilliant will get rid of them in no time

jvb89 · Oct 28, 2016

mcmunn93 said:
Get a copper band fish there brilliant will get rid of them in no time

+1

WetWhistle · Oct 28, 2016

For products I keep a bottle of Red Sea Aiptasia-X handy. This stuff works great. It will probably take a few doses as some tissue is left behind. for natural methods the Matted Filefish (Acreichthys tomentosus) eats these like candy. They are add to reef with caution as some can nip at corals and small inverts. I have had mine for a few years and if i keep them fed I never have issues. But I do test the fish first in a separate tank before adding to my DT. I remove rocks with aiptasia on them to train the fish to see what it picks at and what it doesn't.

jvb89 · Oct 28, 2016

I should also add that my copperband liked my acans...

WetWhistle · Oct 28, 2016

I am not a fan of the copper band method as they have a poor record at best for survival in captivity. These are one of the fish that should stay in the Ocean in my opinion as the death rate for this fish in captivity is very high. But they are beautiful and do work.

mcmunn93 · Oct 28, 2016

With the copperband fish i trained mine to each frozen food and was very happy in my tank.
As long as you quarantine and be patient they will survive

ahiggins · Oct 28, 2016

Duke4Life said:
Going through this again myself. First time I used a combo of super glue, aiptasia x, and peppermints. Berghia nudibranches are the best bet but depending on where you can find them may be pricey.

Ive thought about using http://saltyunderground.com/category/berghia-nudibranch to get some. I only have maybe 8 in my tank so Im letting them be until they get in higher numbers

mcmunn93 · Oct 28, 2016

Best to sort it now than wait till they increase. Cause they can spread pretty quick

WetWhistle · Oct 28, 2016

mcmunn93 said:
With the copperband fish i trained mine to each frozen food and was very happy in my tank.
As long as you quarantine and be patient they will survive

Sad part is people always say they will survive if you are patient but the reality is 9 times out of 10 they do not. This is through personal experience with decades of experience.

Duke4Life · Oct 28, 2016

ahiggins said:
Ive thought about using http://saltyunderground.com/category/berghia-nudibranch to get some. I only have maybe 8 in my tank so Im letting them be until they get in higher numbers

You posted that before and I saved that link

but get rid of them now, they spread like fleas.

WetWhistle · Oct 28, 2016

The key is a multi prong approach. Get something that will help control them but also do manual removal. Manual removal is a huge pain but will give you the best results.

jvb89 · Oct 28, 2016

mcmunn93 said:
With the copperband fish i trained mine to each frozen food and was very happy in my tank.
As long as you quarantine and be patient they will survive

Mine demolishes Larry's reef frenzy and mysis

Bbaz123456 · Oct 28, 2016

The only "sure" way to get rid of them is berghia nudibranchs. No risk to your other inhabitants. They may sound expensive at first but after trying 10 other methods then going with them, you will spend a lot more money!!!
Read through some threads. Hundreds of people have done this already

drawman · Oct 28, 2016

I had good success in one of my displays with both a peppermint shrimp and Biota Aquacultured Aiptasia eating filefish although I'm not entirely sure who did most of the work. The peppermint shrimp perished recently so I will know good or bad soon enough I'm sure.

Berghia did great for me previously but they would always miss a few and invariably the plague would come back after many, many months. A sustained culture would be a great approach, however.

Boiler13 · Oct 28, 2016

That's my biggest thing with the copper band butterfly. is it not eating. I would be extremely selective about which one I got from the store. would probably eye it for a couple weeks to make sure it's eating.

WetWhistle · Oct 28, 2016

Berghia work good to but they are best set up in a separate tank where food can be brought to them so they can breed and build their numbers up without predation or getting sucked into a powerhead. As these guys work best in numbers you will have to breed them before you see drastic results or buy a lot. Where I am they are expensive so the breeding option is best. Flip side once the food source is gone so are they as this is the only thing they eat.

Anytime I have tried putting them directly into my tank they only thing I noticed was a waste of my money. As they never did anything and I never seen them again. Once I set them up in their own tank I got the results I needed. If you go the breeding route check out the link below.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2008/11/breeder