How do YOU kill aiptaisia?

[Jl330]

I think I'll grab some peppermint shrimp and see how that works. These things are tiny.

 

[Susan Bates]

I have heaps, I got a copper band but i can not seem to keep them alive for long, don't know why, i put in peppermint shrimp and my banded shrimp ate them, a lot of them are in places i can not reach

 

[Acuario]

Aiptasia-X worked for me, but I had to be persistent, every few days when a new tiny aipatasia appeared, I buried it in Aiptasia-X. It took probably 6 or 8 treatments. Turn off all wavemaker fans too for a good 15-20 minutes or the Aiptasia-X will blow everywhere.

 

[TbyZ]

See a lot of different comments on this. I found one spot at the base of a frag and one in my zoa colony. Not sure how to get rid of it without hurting anything.

I had one harassing a little leather coral I have. I removed the rock they were on from the aquarium to get the critter. I watched it running away from me as I scraped it off the rock, I then put the rock in RODI water for a couple of minutes, then back in the tank. It seems to have worked.

 

[um02122]

Biologic control:
- peppermint shrimps, Aiptasia eating filefish and copperband butterfly fish might eat it, might also not touch it;
- Berghia nudibranch are obligate predators of Aiptasia

Poisons:
- Aiptasia X, Joe's juice etc.

In my experience, left tissue on rock will regenerate Aiptasia.
Also, placing the rock in boiling water for 15 minutes didn't kill my Aiptasia.

My advice is to employ a mixture of the above, with a routine of feeding them with Aiptasia X. The sad experience is that one Aiptasia visible means ten more are not in sight. Tackle it early or it will drive you to a tank reset.

Good luck!

 

[EHerbert]

I had a real bad infestation when I ordered a squad of Berghia nudibranches 2/3 months ago. They weren'the working fast enough for me so I spent 2 evenings reloading my syringe with Aptasia X and trying to get all that I could reach and see. Got a file fish also, who also seems to have cleared away a lot of the bristle worms... a few is cool, too many is not a good look. Did an inspection over the weekend and only found 1/2 aptasia left and they'really in the midst of zoa colonies. So it was a combo attack that worked for me but them Berghia got them spots I would have had to do a breakdown to get to. dang they'really expensive though... aaarrrgggh!

 

[Palmetto Reefer]

For the past decade I have tried just about everything to rid my display tank of aiptasia. I have used just about every method suggested above, except for filefish & copper butterfly fish. Red Sea's Aiptasia-X provided me the best results but it was expensive and was a constant battle every few days or every weekend trying to search & destroy. Problem was that you had to shut the entire system down to effectively use the Aiptasia-X so that you could target the culprit without that stuff blowing everywhere, especially if it were near a zoa colony.

Recently I invested in a Class IV Laser. I have been using it for the past 2-3 weeks and I can say that this is by far the easiest method of killing aiptasia. You don't have to do anything to your system. Just walk up to the tank, put on the safety glass, and start melting the aiptasia with the laser. You can actually hear them cooking/frying and when you're done zapping them there is nothing left. Yes, the laser was somewhat expensive ($150 +/-) but it's a one time cost unlike Red Sea's Aiptasia-X. And some of the other methods have drawbacks, i.e. Copper Banded Butterfly will eat zoas. For me, I think I have found the ultimate weapon to battle the aiptasia in my tank.

 

[ReefJake123]

The easiest thing is to buy peppermint shrimp they eat those and I bought some and now I don't have an of those anemones

 

[jrwoltman]

I use a combination of Aiptasia X and peppermint shrimp. That works very well in my tank. Don't worry if you never see the peppermints, they are nocturnal. I thought mine were all eaten by something, until I started finding their molts.

 

[jd371]

Not what I bought him for, but my Copper Band has taken care of the out in the open visible Aptasia. Since this past Spring when I got the CBB the only Aptasia I had to kill were the ones in the crevices that he couldn't reach and I use Aptasia-X on those. He's also been a model citizen and not touched any of the corals.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I think I'll grab some peppermint shrimp and see how that works. These things are tiny.

That works well. Ime none touched the larger ones but the babies disappear. Kalk/app x. For those.

Or you're also welcome to borrow this.

 

[DSC reef]

I want to try the laser so badly. Probably not as effective as a mushroom cloud but....

 

[Sea MunnKey]

I dislike aiptasia ... and they are no single direct approach to eradicating these pesky "parasites"!! Pepperment shrimps, filefish, Copperband, berghia nudis all have but failed ... Aiptasia X another temporary fix. Laser is not cheap and no one sells it over here as far as I'm aware of.

 

[ReefJake123]

Yea

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

I have used both Bergia Nudibranchs and Aiptasia X. Both worked well. But the Aiptasia X works instantly--you see the aiptasia implode in less than 60 seconds!

 

[HereWeGoAgain]

I have used both Bergia Nudibranchs and Aiptasia X. Both worked well. But the Aiptasia X works instantly--you see the aiptasia implode in less than 60 seconds!

 

[James Emory Verified Sponsor]

My peppermint shrimp keep my tank aiptasia free. I even put a frag in once with a small piece of aiptasia on it and the shrimps instantly went for it. That’s just my experience though

I've always used a hypodermic needle filled with liquid calcium and it has always worked for me.

 

[ReefJake123]

Yea but recent studies shows that just releases the aiptasia eggs by the thousands

 

[Jl330]

Yea but recent studies shows that just releases the aiptasia eggs by the thousands

I've seen that happen. Tank overtaken after using a needle so I'm trying to go less invasive and kill it with natural methods (shrimp) before I go after it with chemicals.

I'll do super glue next.

 

[RainbowReefa]

+1 on the super glue! Save yourself the time and just glue them. Philosophy is, anything that disturbs their tissue, even shrimp and fish will cause their cells to remain and spread in your system, only to potentially sprout up again. It's a pretty quick and easy fix, with a very high success rate. Do be careful with peppermint shrimp, there are many variations.

 

[ReefJake123]

+1 on the super glue! Save yourself the time and just glue them. Philosophy is, anything that disturbs their tissue, even shrimp and fish will cause their cells to remain and spread in your system, only to potentially sprout up again. It's a pretty quick and easy fix, with a very high success rate. Do be careful with peppermint shrimp, there are many variations.

Not really bc shrimp have always worked and I haven't seen the nem return