Lets Talk Aiptasia anemones

chelltom · Dec 10, 2015

Ok so while looking a my tank last night saw 2 ever so small yet dreaded aiptasia on a rock in the middle of my tank surrounded on every side by live rocks . So my first thought is to throw the rock out which will mean destroying my aqua scape and who knows if its already spread anyway. So i did about 2 hours of research last night and came up with the following possible solutions please help me by voting on which route I should take or provide other possible answers. Thanks for you help . Here are the options I came up with so far.
1. Peppermint shrimp sounds good only I have read in some cases it may also attack other anemones or coral. Thoughts ?

2. Bottles of magic cure such as Joes Juice or Aiptasia X - again sounds good but I would be adding a bunk of unknown to the tank also I have read that although these items appear to work at first the aiptasia keeps coming back and you have to continually treat.

3. Berghia Nudibranch claims to be natures best cure-all - cons expensive and do they really work Finally if they do work and eat all of it they then starve to death in your tank.

Please vote and give advice or other solutions. Thanks

sucker · Dec 10, 2015

Kalkwasser

Duke4Life · Dec 10, 2015

I've gone to killing the big 1s with aiptasia X that I see. My peppermint shrimp and filefish mow down the smaller 1s, have not bothered coral (knock on wood). Would have went nudis but the expense was why I went other routes.

chelltom · Dec 10, 2015

does the shrimp bother other anemones

Duke4Life said:
I've gone to killing the big 1s with aiptasia X that I see. My peppermint shrimp and filefish mow down the smaller 1s, have not bothered coral (knock on wood). Would have went nudis but the expense was why I went other routes.

Duke4Life · Dec 10, 2015

Not sure, as that wasn't a concern for me. Hope others with more insight can chime in and answer that for you.

trahelyk · Dec 10, 2015

When I had aptasia in my nano, a couple peppermint shrimps completely solved the problem. Unfortunately, they also ate my torch coral and most of my snails. It's just popped up in my new 93-gallon, so I'm curious about Aptasia-X as well. I would really like to avoid crabs and shrimps if I can.

twilliard · Dec 10, 2015

Superglue will be your best friend

HiddenUser · Dec 10, 2015

I've tried Kalk, Aiptasia X, Vinegar, Lemon Juice, Peppermint Shrimp, Copperband Butteryfly, and as of most recently trying Berghia Nudibranchs...The Nudibranchs are going to take time and if you only have 2 visibile aiptasia, may not be cost effective.

If possible you could also try to glue over the aiptasia...

If I could go back in time, I would just take the rock out that I initially put into my tank that had aiptasia on it versus trying all these different methods down the road and wasting money.

chelltom · Dec 10, 2015

twilliard said:
Superglue will be your best friend

please elaborate

chelltom · Dec 10, 2015

sounds like I will be doing some major aqua scaping tonight

HiddenUser · Dec 10, 2015

Cover the entire aiptasia and little area around it with superglue. Basically entombs it.

twilliard · Dec 10, 2015

chelltom said:
please elaborate

Find the hole it is in and take the little bottle of superglue and fill the hole.
You will never see it again.

chelltom · Dec 10, 2015

interesting does the superglue have any negative effect on the tank

eg8r210 · Dec 10, 2015

chelltom said:
Ok so while looking a my tank last night saw 2 ever so small yet dreaded aiptasia on a rock in the middle of my tank surrounded on every side by live rocks . So my first thought is to throw the rock out which will mean destroying my aqua scape and who knows if its already spread anyway. So i did about 2 hours of research last night and came up with the following possible solutions please help me by voting on which route I should take or provide other possible answers. Thanks for you help . Here are the options I came up with so far.
1. Peppermint shrimp sounds good only I have read in some cases it may also attack other anemones or coral. Thoughts ?

2. Bottles of magic cure such as Joes Juice or Aiptasia X - again sounds good but I would be adding a bunk of unknown to the tank also I have read that although these items appear to work at first the aiptasia keeps coming back and you have to continually treat.

3. Berghia Nudibranch claims to be natures best cure-all - cons expensive and do they really work Finally if they do work and eat all of it they then starve to death in your tank.

Please vote and give advice or other solutions. Thanks

From what I have been told there are different types of Peppermint shrimp so you need to make sure you get the correct ones. I have had tremendous success in the past with peppermint shrimp. Lately I have decided there is a much better option and that is the copper band butterfly. You get this amazingly beautiful fish to look at all day AND he eats the stuff you don't want in your tank. Win win for me. Once all the aiptasia are gone (at least from sight) I added a little live brine shrimp with mysis and he started eating the same food as the rest of his tank mates.

HiddenUser · Dec 10, 2015

chelltom said:
interesting does the superglue have any negative effect on the tank

No it does not. Many people use it for aquascaping as well as gluing frags down onto plugs or rubble.

AllSignsPointToFish · Dec 10, 2015

Aiptasia X has worked fantastically for me.

I tried superglue, but I found it to be messy and marginally effective. There were times when the anemone would retreat into its hole only to pop out of another nearby hole a few days later.

chelltom · Dec 10, 2015

thanks for the advice i will let you know what happens

chelltom · Dec 10, 2015

What ended up working for you ?

AllSignsPointToFIsh said:
Aiptasia X has worked fantastically for me.

I tried superglue, but I found it to be messy and marginally effective. There were times when the anemone would retreat into its hole only to pop out of another nearby hole a few days later.