Trick to kill the aiptasia?

[bif24701]

My Berghia from ReefTown have arrived! They are so graceful and beautiful. There laid a couple coils of eggs in the container. I am acclimating them and will place the container in the aquarium so that they will disembark together to go after the aiptasia .

You can suck them up with a baster and place them on rocks, that way they can get out of sight quickly. Plus that's where they live. I would place most of them on the same rock with at least a few aiptasia so they will begin to breed faster. The more often they find each other the more they breed. So clumping up the population in a rock can help this.

 

[ImGood]

If you have an invert qt put a peppermint shrimp in it, it will eliminate aptasia before it gets to the DT.They aren't a Roland's type fix .they don't manage it they eliminate the issue. Jmo based on personal observation.cheers

 

[Engloid]

The spores they release sure can.....

I have never seen one release spores when hit with vinegar. The vinegar will kill the spores also. Think of how ph changes affect fish. Vinegar has a ph of about 2.2, so when you hit aiptasia with it, they simply cannot live, nor can the spores.

 

[Engloid]

Yea but do they come back like all the other chemical methods?
Jeff

No. Dead...immediately. I have 125g tank, FULL of live rock, and about 120g more in sumps, and have not a single aiptasia. It's not because I was very careful with what I added either. I bought some rock that had aiptasia on it. The copperband butterfly got the little ones and I got the big ones.

 

[DSC reef]

I have never seen one release spores when hit with vinegar. The vinegar will kill the spores also. Think of how ph changes affect fish. Vinegar has a ph of about 2.2, so when you hit aiptasia with it, they simply cannot live, nor can the spores.

Im glad it worked for you but to imply it's the end all is false. You can't see the spores by the way. I'm not opposed to injecting them if you have too, I've done it as well. Most of the time you will end up with babies scattered around the tank and other members should be warned of the risks.

 

[Dlionsfan09]

Never understand why people recommend taking the rock out of the tank. A peppermint shrimp will go ham sandwich aiptasia. There are a variety of fish that eat it as well.

 

[DSC reef]

Never understand why people recommend taking the rock out of the tank. A peppermint shrimp will go ham sandwich aiptasia. There are a variety of fish that eat it as well.

It's never a guarantee that peppermint shrimp will eat them or predatory fish. Taking the rock out if able ensures that you can remove the aptaisia without causing an outbreak in the tank. I've had some peppermint shrimp and fish do great while others have not. I'm giving advice based on experience, an outbreak of aptaisia will wreak havoc on a tank. If you have a couple of aptaisia and the rock can be removed then why risk causing and outbreak? Happy reefing everyone.

 

[Cessna89811]

You can suck them up with a baster and place them on rocks, that way they can get out of sight quickly. Plus that's where they live. I would place most of them on the same rock with at least a few aiptasia so they will begin to breed faster. The more often they find each other the more they breed. So clumping up the population in a rock can help this.

My 3 large Berghia from Reeftown have destroyed the aiptasia forest! Got them Thursday morning and now it's Saturday morning. There is no trace of the aiptasia!

 

[Cessna89811]

Make sure that container is tight against a rock and in a lower flow area, it took mine an hour or two to figure it out

Yep took the berghia forever to leave the container. They followed each other all over the nano tank and then disappeared into the live rock on Thursday afternoon. Friday morning my aiptasia forest appeared to be thinning. Saturday morning all aiptasia had vanished. Love those little guys.

 

[Engloid]

Im glad it worked for you but to imply it's the end all is false. You can't see the spores by the way. I'm not opposed to injecting them if you have too, I've done it as well. Most of the time you will end up with babies scattered around the tank and other members should be warned of the risks.

So I guess I'm just lucky after years of taking any rock, regardless of how much aiptasia is on it, and every time I wind up 100% aiptasia free. I'd love to hear about these invisible spores or how they can survive the pH of vinegar.

 

[coralbeauties]

I added 9 berghia to my 180 gallon tank this mourning when I received them. I got them from salty underground on sale for only $8.99 per nudi. Lucked out and they were running free shipping over $79. If your looking to buy they are on sale for 2 more days and still have the free shipping special. I removed my wrasse so I could try this method. I am anxious to get the flashlight out tonight and see if I can see them at work. Right now with the lights on I can only see one tucked into the rock. I am hoping my idol who is always picking at the rock didnt help itself to an $90 snack.
Jeff

 

[DSC reef]

So I guess I'm just lucky after years of taking any rock, regardless of how much aiptasia is on it, and every time I wind up 100% aiptasia free. I'd love to hear about these invisible spores or how they can survive the pH of vinegar.

Your right man, you have solved the mystery of killing aptaisia and you should spread the word! Now your saying they don't release spores and you would see them if they did? Lol. I'm not gonna argue with you, go ahead and flood forums with how vinegar will solve everyone's aptaisia problem without any risks at all. Good luck. By the way, I had a local fish store tell me the same thing about pure lemon juice and how the aptaisia couldn't survive the acidity and blah, blah blah. I tried it and it caused an explosion of baby aptaisia in a months time. If only i couldve read some warnings about using this method and the risks involved. See how that works engloid? No one ever said "your" method doesnt work but i will stand by and say its irresponsible to tell someone to inject an aptaisia with vinegar or any substance without warning that it can cause the aptaisia to spread. Plenty of info here, this horse will not be beat any longer. Happy reefing.

 

[videosilva]

Why does this question still come up and why do people post useless information. I love the people that answer a question with another question and have thousands of posts with NOTHING.

STEP 1
Syringe

STEP 2
Lemon Juice

STEP 3
Inject

STEP 4
Repeat when needed

 

[DSC reef]

Why does this question still come up and why do people post useless information. I love the people that answer a question with another question and have thousands of posts with NOTHING.

STEP 1
Syringe

STEP 2
Lemon Juice

STEP 3
Inject

STEP 4
Repeat when needed

The only useless information is when you pop up. Be careful silva, you might reach 1000 posts and be a "waste of bandwidth". You'll definitely have to repeat if your injecting lemon juice so I guess your right afterall. Lol I still don't think you get how a forum works silva. We post our experiences to help others make decisions on how to tackle there issue. Pretty simple really

 

[Engloid]

Your right man, you have solved the mystery of killing aptaisia and you should spread the word! Now your saying they don't release spores and you would see them if they did? Lol. I'm not gonna argue with you, go ahead and flood forums with how vinegar will solve everyone's aptaisia problem without any risks at all. Good luck. By the way, I had a local fish store tell me the same thing about pure lemon juice and how the aptaisia couldn't survive the acidity and blah, blah blah. I tried it and it caused an explosion of baby aptaisia in a months time. If only i couldve read some warnings about using this method and the risks involved. See how that works engloid? No one ever said "your" method doesnt work but i will stand by and say its irresponsible to tell someone to inject an aptaisia with vinegar or any substance without warning that it can cause the aptaisia to spread. Plenty of info here, this horse will not be beat any longer. Happy reefing.

Yeah, and I heard a lfs tell a person that a figure 8 puffer would go great with mollies too. I'd love to hear some proof that an aiptasia bloom was cause by vinegar. It did get dark that night, right? Maybe that's what caused it. You're simply tying together two things that are likely not even related. THAT is what I'd call irresponsible. I am still waiting on an explanation of how you think aiptasia or spores can survive with a ph of about 2.2. It is a coral. What coral can survive that ph?

 

[Engloid]

I don't use lemon juice because I don't really trust everything that is in it. If it's lemon juice straight out of a lemon, I'd bet it has a lot of phosphate in it. Here is a list of ingredients in "lemon juice" concentrate. https://video.search.yahoo.com/sear...d863cb741f751767f5b34aad0e79f7c6&action=click Safe for us to eat doesn't mean safe for an aquarium.

 

[Cliffsreef]

You need an army of peppermint shrimp... like 2 per 5 gallons... from what I have read... I did the bergiha nudibranchs.... I think they got eaten .. put a file fish in yesterday... we will see

 

[Engloid]

You need an army of peppermint shrimp... like 2 per 5 gallons... from what I have read... I did the bergiha nudibranchs.... I think they got eaten .. put a file fish in yesterday... we will see

I tried a filefish once. I never saw it eat anything other than my zoas. I have heard that there are no guarantees with them. Some will eat aiptasia and some won't. I wasn't going to give it a second shot. EVERY setup I've had, I have been able to stay aiptasia free, even after having thousands of them...by using vinegar and a copperband butterfly. I have taken in free rock that was covered with aiptasia, and it's always been killed off. I currently have a 125g display (about 245g system volume) and a 150g stock tank, and not a single aiptasia.

 

[Ubergroover]

I had an aiptasia epidemic. 2 peppermint shrimp fixed it. Zero now

 

[DSC reef]

I had an aiptasia epidemic. 2 peppermint shrimp fixed it. Zero now

According to engloid nothing works other than vinegar. We're all wrong! Lol. Peppermint shrimp, file fish, natural predators work great and proven. If only we knew about vinegar.......