Aptasia - when do you quit

[MT. Reefer]

Your Copperband won't eat it? I bought a Copperband from Live Aquaria for 35 bucks last year and no more aptasia. And, she eats like a pig!

 

[slosoak]

I have had good luck with Klein’s butterflies. If the aptasia are large nothing will eat them. I am in aquarium maintenance and have had decent success with peppermints but have yet to come upon a filefish that worked. Best fish was a C. Marginalus (?) similar to a copperband but better at eating other foods. They are hard to come by and more expensive. Berghia need time and few fish, the leopard would definitely go after them

 

[ducklady]

I just shoot kalk past right inside the thing and they go away and done come back

 

[nosmok]

Peppermint shrimp seem to be wiping out my Aptasia in my Biocube. I tried them and Berghia Nudibranchs in my 150 gallon reef tank to no avail. I bought the 5 watt laser I saw on Melev's Reef. It makes the pests shrivel and withdraw if you zap them for several minutes (almost a full battery charge), but they're back the next day thumbing their tentacles at my laser. Kalk paste does a great job killing the ones I see, until more appear elsewhere. I patrol my overflow boxes and refugium where they harbor as well. Thinking about trying a filefish again

 

[LDH]

I kept trying peppermints until I finally found some that had an appetite for it. I have not seen an aptasia in my tank in years and I was over run with it. Took me at least three batches of peppy’s to get a couple that would eat it but it was worth the continuous attempts!

 

[joejoe1055-1]

Just remember to not expect an overnight miracle. Which ever method u use just be patient.. This hobby takes time, just take a deep breath and fight another round.

 

[ZoWhat]

You need two things:
1) a paste to kill med to large Aiptasia
2) Copperband Butterfly

If you use the paste of your choice: kalk, aipX, joes.... and kill the med to large ones knowing they will spawn baby ones....

A CBB will eat the baby Aip but wont touch med to large ones bc the CBB grts stung by med/lrg.

Goal is to get all Aip to baby size and let the CBB eat the babies.

A year ago I had 200+ Aip. As I type this ZERO due to above tactics.

Hth



.

 

[Travis Stewart]

I’ve always used Red Sea Aptasia X to good effect, once you get the timing of the squirting correct. Hover over/away from the mouth and then fire!

If you have a lot just do it over a period of weeks when you get time and you should soon have it under control, that’s what I did anyway.

I also got 3 peppermint shrimps as well once under reasonable control

I also use this method right before water change when pumps off. I let the aiptasia engulf the aiptasia x and then siphon our the remains so they can’t re grow. I also had major success with peppermint shrimp. I took in a small rock with aiptasia on it and made sure they ate it at the LFS before purchase. Within a minute it was gone.

 

[curiouser]

I sympathize with OP. About 20 yrs ago I lost my best ever reef tank to aiptasia. There were less options back then to get rid rid of those horrible little killer pests. It was like metastatic cancer. I was going to move across country in a short time so it seemed less of a loss. But it kept me out of the hobby for over 16 yrs.
I'm back in for past 3+ years and enjoying it a lot.
Reading this thread and some quick googling left me with a few thoughts that I offer with no hard science to back them up.
--There are different species of berghias. (http://www.reefaquarium.com/2013/berghia-aeolidiella-nudibranch-natural-aiptasia-control) Consider getting your next supply from a different supplier and try to find out beforehand if they are a different species from your previous batches.
--Some fish eat nudis/berghia among them. Look for this this fish behavior and if present try to rehome the offender. (http://www.reefaquarium.com/2013/berghia-aeolidiella-nudibranch-natural-aiptasia-control/
--On another R2R thread someone posted the idea of going after the aiptasia with a multipronged attack consisting of many anti anti-aiptasia critters and remedies. Skimjim on this thread suggested
"You need two things:
1) a paste to kill med to large Aiptasia
2) Copperband Butterfly."
Perhaps expanding to an army of different approaches would result in other beneficial interactions.
Probably costly, but compare to cost of what you already in your setup.
--Somebody on this thread (LDH) was successful with the third batch of peppys. Consider getting a combination of peppys (and/or other critters) from different suppliers.

Whatever you decide I wish you luck and satisfaction.

 

[Whichlinda]

I also had an aiptasia bloom when I used aiptasia x. I had it all over my rock, sand, zoas, overflow box, and sump. I've use 5+ peppermint shrimp (failed) matted file fish twice (failed), nudi branch 20 (successful, but had to remove shrimp and all wrasse), and CBB (success). The nudi branch worked very well. I ended up with 50+ and sold them to local reefers. Unfortunately, the ones that I wasnt able to sell died off. Took about 4 months, but I was close to breaking down my tank. This was about a year ago. I lost my CBB 3 months after the aiptasia were gone. Now I see a couple that is starting to come back. =/

 

[Karie]

I agree with SlimJim. I use super concentrated salt water (as salty as I can make it) and squirt it into the 'mouth' of the aiptasia. Sometimes it kills them and sometimes it kills enough of it that my copperband comes and finishes the any leftover part of aiptasia. Like SlimJim said, the trick is to get the aiptasia as a small little nub and the fish or peppermint shrimp will eat it. They will not eat large aiptasias only small.

Good luck. It will take a long time but it is doable.

 

[ca1ore]

You will, and have, get many opinions. Leopard and Flasher wrasses will not eat aptasia in my experience; in fact wrasses in general are not useful in this regard. One the infestation gets beyond a certain point things like joes juice, aiptasia-X are like washing your car with a toothbrush - not effective. Nudis are ok, but unless you employ an army they often cannot keep up, plus they are not long lived and once they die the problem just returns. I've found butterflyfish inconsistent - some eat aiptasia, others do not. Matted filefish is reputed to be a good solution, though I've not tried it myself. The aiptasia (and majano) eating BIG GUN is the Asfur Angel. I've employed the Arabian angel in three separate occasions and it always clears the tank with extreme prejudice. The only downside is that once the anemones are gone it'll go to work on your Zooanthids, if you have them. A reasonable tradeoff for me, but perhaps not to everyone. Asfur is stunning fish too, unlike the filefish.

 

[amazongb]

My lfs feeds aptasia to his peppermints .. he will even demonstrated before I bought them.. I bought two small ones and so far so good.. had an infestation and now I don’t see any.. I’m sure if the peppermints pass on that the aptasia will probably come back but it sure is not not having to use aptasia x every freagin day!

 

[AlgaeBarn]

My lfs feeds aptasia to his peppermints .. he will even demonstrated before I bought them.. I bought two small ones and so far so good.. had an infestation and now I don’t see any.. I’m sure if the peppermints pass on that the aptasia will probably come back but it sure is not not having to use aptasia x every freagin day!

We have done something similar. We stock captive bred peppermint that are the aiptasia eating species. A little pricier, but you know exactly what you are getting. Peppermint shrimp are pretty adventurous when they know you have food. We use a catheter syringe to suck up aiptasia, get it into the catheter portion. Dip the syringe in the water and the peppermints will start fighting each other to win the prize. The winner will hastily rip it out of the syringe and start shredding the aiptasia. It's pretty entertaining to watch one of our greatest foes decimated. I'll get a video the next time we do this.

 

[toybox22]

Peppermints and Aiptasia X worked for me for a while. Eventually the peppers stopped caring. Now its impossible to find peppers around me so I'm giving nudis a try. They arrive tomorrow morning. Hoping they rid my problem!

 

[Dan Rigle]

This is a last ditch effort, but a raccoon butterfly or a banded butterfly will eat them for sure. But they eat corals when no more aptasia are available.

 

[BigAsh]

I had a bad infestation for about four months. I fought them with Aiptasia X during every weekly water change when the water level was low and pumps off. Bought the 16oz refill size because I would use up a whole small bottle every week (187 gallon tank). Tried Berghias but didn't notice any effect. Maybe my six-line got them. Finally got a Matted Filefish out of QT and put him in. There was no effect for about a month and a half. Then suddenly, all the Aiptasia were gone. Stopped using the Aiptasia X and none since.

 

[MartinWaite]

I used a laser with adjustable lens from ebay and set the light to a pin prick size at about 8 inches and ensuring that I hit the aiptasia smack in it oral disc burned the bu##er then changed the batteries some took 2 or 3 sets of batteries (good job they're rechargeable batteries) I got all of mine that way except for 1 that was growing through a organ pipe coral and I bought 2 peppermint shrimps that the lfs had starved for me while I over feed my tank then I put the shrimps in my tank and never fed it for day or two and when I did go to feed the tank the aip had gone never to return in the last 2.5-3 years. So it can be done you just have to choose your battle tools wisely and then go for them and stay with it till they are gone you can do it!

 

[jdpeters]

At what point do you throw in the towel? I have spent hundreds of dollars on berghia nudibranchs with zero response from the seller, despite his frequently saying he has responded. (I have the screenshots). I have spent a lot of money on shrimp, copperband butterfly which is thriving, and now an aptasia eating file fish. Is there a point when you just throw in the towel and burn the whole ****** tank? I got out of this hobby years ago due to aptasia and i'm about done again. I'm fustrated at the lack of control we have over this nuisance. I'm mad at myself for my inability to keep it out of my tank. Yes, I have two (not one) quarantine tanks. I use reputable coral sellers only. You know who you are. And i'm upset at the gimmicks that are designed to control them. I worked very hard to keep this tank clear of nuisance aptasia because I knew it was what got me out of the hobby years ago. I don't know if its even recoverable if i had ten file fish eating non-stop. too many and they grow too fast .. spitting nails in disgust

Have you tried peppermint shrimp? I had immediate success with one.

 

[TonapahNorth]

We have done something similar. We stock captive bred peppermint that are the aiptasia eating species. A little pricier, but you know exactly what you are getting. Peppermint shrimp are pretty adventurous when they know you have food. We use a catheter syringe to suck up aiptasia, get it into the catheter portion. Dip the syringe in the water and the peppermints will start fighting each other to win the prize. The winner will hastily rip it out of the syringe and start shredding the aiptasia. It's pretty entertaining to watch one of our greatest foes decimated. I'll get a video the next time we do this.

I am an active bi-monthly subscriber for your pods anyway ... have been for months ... so i may call and ask for a couple.