HELP Aiptasia Invasion

Susan Edwards · Oct 30, 2018

Okay, my fault, well sort of, but my tanks got neglected. My 40 gal frag tank is now overrun with aiptasia. Every surface including the powerhead cords and on glass. It's so bad I don't dare take the corals out to put in the 125 tank!

I picked up about 8 peppermint shrimps and put them in. Added a tiny mandarin to help keep the pods under control and for fun.

So what else can I do. I'll hit the larger ones with aiptasia X. I want to remove the corals. Can I pour either coral dip over the rocks, or peroxide, or something to kill anything I can't see?

Can I add a mat file fish with the peppermints in there? I saw one post somewhere that the person said the file fish didn't bother the shrimps. How bad will the file fish bother my corals?

I'll also look for the burghia???

Also read that hermit crabs will eat the stuff. True? What else will eat it.

Can I put a copper band in a 40 gal at least until the tank is clear?
Now that I'm back to my tanks, I need to get this tank cleaned up. The 125 has a couple. Two on a frag rock that I can easily pulled out.

any help appreciated

saltyfilmfolks · Oct 30, 2018

I think the shrimp and aptasia x are the best rout right now.

A a few minutes a day or two and you can put quite a dent in them. Then shrimp should clear up a lot of them and the new ones popping up.
I think that would give some pretty major instant relief visually and clear up the prob in a few weeks.

Bergia would be my next choice.

I had a file fish one for two days. Became a murder fish , ate a shrimp and went for the other fish next. A lot of folks have no probs with them.

No. Crabs don’t eat them.

Not sure I’d toss fish at the prob, then you’d use have fish without a job so to speak and may or may not be good choices later on.

jd371 · Oct 30, 2018

If what you're doing now fails don't hesitate on getting the Berghia. They take a while and if there is no predation they will absolutely get the job done. I put them in my tank in April and by July all the Aptasia was gone.

ca1ore · Oct 30, 2018

If it's only a 40 gallon frag tank, I'd consider taking out all the frags and thoroughly cleaning out the tank. You won't get them all, but it will then be easier to target eradicate them. I do this for my frag tank annually.

Captain Quint · Oct 30, 2018

jd371 said:
If what you're doing now fails don't hesitate on getting the Berghia. They take a while and if there is no predation they will absolutely get the job done. I put them in my tank in April and by July all the Aptasia was gone.

+! I used ~12 Berghia Nudibranchs in my 93cube years back. It took quite some time but that's all they eat and they will get the job done for sure.

Initially...I started with peppermints and they didn't do anything, my CBB did until it decided it like frozen foods and my filefish the same and took a chunk out of a gold striped maroon with the gold having the blue trim on the outer edges of the gold. Pretty hard to find them with that pattern. I hated that filefish from that point on.

Hope it goes well for you and please keep us updated Susan Edwards.

Susan Edwards · Oct 30, 2018

thanks. Will start the aiptasia x again, and look for some berghias online. I could just kick myself for neglecting things but I just couldn't handle everything for a good 4 months or so when life intruded.

dwolson · Oct 30, 2018

I had a similar situation. I added a few peps to my tank and the aiptasia was gone in a month. I would recommend getting the biggest peps you can get ahold of.

Katrina71 · Oct 30, 2018

I just added some nudis to my tank. I was told it should take about 4 months. I used aiptasia x and it just made them multiply. Not all, but the ones that did...

csb123 · Oct 31, 2018

Berghia nudist did nothing for my major infestation. While waiting for the nudis to work (4 months) every inch of rock was covered. I spent $800 on them for a 300 gallon tank...what a waste.

The way I got control of the situation was actually removing the rock a piece at a time ( coral and all) and “painting” it with kalk paste. 1/4 cup of kalk paste (latex paint consistency) would bump my pH to 8.5 for a few hours and the dHK would bump up by 0.3. Every several days I would do another rock and over 6 weeks I finished. I then got a Copperband butterfly and have not seen an aiptasia since.

During this process I didn’t lose a single coral (SPS, LPS, and softies.) nor any fish.

jd371 · Oct 31, 2018

Katrina71 said:
I just added some nudis to my tank. I was told it should take about 4 months. I used aiptasia x and it just made them multiply. Not all, but the ones that did...

For me the Aptasia-X worked for the Aptasia that was on the top of the rocks and easy to smother. The ones in the holes and crevices all it did was make them retract and pop up days later with some buddies.