What's your experience with Aiptasia KILLERS?

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Aiptasia anemones are a pest to the nth degree! They almost seemingly appear from nowhere and seem to breed in epic proportions. They are a pain to say the least. So in order to be a good steward of our reef aquarium it is up to us to "eliminate" them. But there are so many different ways that claim to get this job done and knowing what works and what doesn't work can be a challenge. There are aiptasia killing wands, aiptasia killing nudis, aiptasia killing juice, aiptasia killing fish and so on and so forth. So today I would like to ask you about your experience with Aiptasia killers!

1. What has been the BEST and most effective "tool" that you have used to get rid of aiptasia in your aquarium?

2. What are all the ways that have worked and have not worked?

berghia nudis eating aiptasia from this zoanthid colony: image via www.saltyunderground.com

 

[UkiahTheTurtle]

1. What has been the BEST and most effective "tool" that you have used to get rid of aiptasia in your aquarium? Aiptasia X

2. What are all the ways that have worked and have not worked? Peppermint shrimp have not worked ripping them out failed and can't have a filefish my tank all ready is full

 

[N.Sreefer]

I found blasting them with chemicals never really kept the numbers down. Same goes for smothering them with glue. Im assuming nudis hitched a ride on some liverock and made it through curing because I added some new rock and the millions of nems all disappeared over the course of a work week. What worked for me? Luck haha.

 

[CanuckReefer]

Bought ONE Berghia, as a little experiment about a month ago. Heard quite a few are needed for an infestation, but I only had 4 or 5 Aiptasia, so said let's see what happens. Berghia re-appeared on my glass this morning, after being mia since introduced. I now have one aiptasia left that I can find. I'd say things a success thus far. Hopeful that it wipes out a few more wee ones I can't see, and I can rehome it in a few weeks ideally.

 

[lpsouth1978]

I have had great success in the past using Peppermint Shrimp. I do not have any Aiptasia in my current system yet, but will once again try peppermints if any get in.

 

[Dburr1014]

I have used bleach, worked
I have used vinegar, not work
F aiptasia, not work(side ways or upside down... No)
Kalk paste, not work( side ways or upside down... No)
Lemon juice, surprisingly, yes
Glue and epoxy, not work
Berghia nudis, yes

The one thing in common to all of those? The aiptasia always come back cuz you missed one or even a part of one somewhere.

I put other cuz I just had to use berghia. I don't see any aiptasia but I know they are in there somewhere.

 

[Waboss]

So here's my experience with aptasia "killers"

• Berghia Nudi's - successful
  • Need to give them enough time (weeks) and it'll start out looking like nothing is happening and all of a sudden you start noticing less and less aptasia (assuming you have no predators that will eat them)
• Filefish - successful with warning
  • I still have the filefish I picked up to see if they worked, he's a great little fish, but once he's out of aptasia to eat, he went to work on palys, which was fine for me because they were starting to take over the tank. I've heard of them going after blastos and zoa's as well, but I haven't had that issue with mine
• Aptasia X - limited success........maybe
  • It seemed to work, but I ended up with more aptasia than I started with after using it for a while (and me thinking I eradicated them

That's all I've tried, but these are my experiences.

 

[bday1335]

I voted NONE, as CURRENTLY I do not have an issue. I did, however, have a large issue with them a few months back. Got a group of 10 Peppermint Shrimp that made quick work of them in the 120g, and they now happily eat leftover food and live a happy life hiding upside down in the rockwork! No aptasia have since appeared in the display!

 

[cylon032]

Tried some peppermint shrimp but they didn’t even touch them, used aiptasia x only made them spread to different rocks even though I put the only rock that had them on at the time in a different tank I had lying around. File fish eats them here and there but can’t get to the ones deep in the crevices. Recently picked up some nudibranch from a local reefer and some of the aiptaisa has disappeared

 

[GillMeister]

I feel lucky and blessed to have avoided the nasty lil aiptasia devils. I have digitate hydroids, though. Dosing fenbendazole 3 times has not taken them out.

 

[JumboShrimp]

I have found that if you never let the problem get severe / way out ahead of itself, then provided you can reach your rocks with your arm in a fairly small tank, you can play the war of attrition with Aptasia-X or Joe’s Juice. If 1 pops up a day, but you are killing 2 per day, theoretically you will one day win. Lol!

 

[bigdrew]

For those that have tried Peppermint shrimp and had both success and no success, FYI to this little helpful thing.

I screenshot this somewhere along the way inside of a R2F forum. I don't know who posted it (didn't capture that in my screenshot) otherwise I would be happy to give credit.

 

[College_Reefer]

My experience is this:

Berghias are 100% however you have to be patient. I released 2 into my 30 gallon tank and two months later realized there were no more Aiptasia as well as baby berghias. They aren't instant but they do work very well

Peppermint shrimp was dang near overnight solution for me however I do acknowledge everyone doesn't have the same luck. I dropped one in my IM 14 and woke up to only 1 or 2 left and there were a lot in there the day before and by he second day, there were 0 left.

AiptasiaX, etc. have never worked well for me. All they do is cause a bigger spread and a bigger headache

 

[sp1187]

Aiptasia anemones are a pest to the nth degree! They almost seemingly appear from nowhere and seem to breed in epic proportions. They are a pain to say the least. So in order to be a good steward of our reef aquarium it is up to us to "eliminate" them. But there are so many different ways that claim to get this job done and knowing what works and what doesn't work can be a challenge. There are aiptasia killing wands, aiptasia killing nudis, aiptasia killing juice, aiptasia killing fish and so on and so forth. So today I would like to ask you about your experience with Aiptasia killers!

1. What has been the BEST and most effective "tool" that you have used to get rid of aiptasia in your aquarium?

2. What are all the ways that have worked and have not worked?

berghia nudis eating aiptasia from this zoanthid colony: image via www.saltyunderground.com

my sump is a breeding ground.
those that have ventured out become dinner

tried 4 peppermint shrimp in the sump. they all disappeared. me thinks the aips ate them.

 

[JosephM]

Superglue worked well for me when I could take the infested rock out of water. For the ones in tight spots or non-removable rocks I tried aiptasia-x. I had 2 of them and it only killed one and I completely covered both. All well

 

[Doctorgori]

weird thing is I get one or two in this one tank but zero in my two others ...
I can kill the two I see and in a few months another appears. This has gone on for 6-7 yrs
Epoxy or super glue for me

 

[Patientman]

I checked "none". HAVE had it in the past … good results with Aiptasia X … so thinking that is a vote for "none … that I can see anyway!"

 

[dvgyfresh]

I would use kalk paste or lemon juice before buying aptasia x ! But nothing is as effective as berghia nudibranch, they get every single aptasia over time

 

[Bfragale]

My favorite is a glob of kelkwasser- seems to do the trick for me.

I have had success with peppermint shrimp as well- but only the “real” ones lol. 1st batch wasn’t real aptasia eating ones, second batch did wonders in my softie tank. No other treatments and they all seem to be gone.

also the file fish- in my main display I had a few huge aptasia I couldn’t reach without tearing apart the rocks. Banded shrimp doesn’t get along with other shrimp so I tried the file fish. Took about a month for him To notice them, and at first I thought he was a dud. After a few months- I realized NO MORE APTASIA! Again- I had a more green looking file fish and one that’s darker brown with spots. Only the darker one would eat it. But once he did- he took care of them all.

 

[KrisReef]

Being careful to not introduce them is a better option than having to find the right predator. I had an invasion come in on a Pipeorgan coral colony. I looked but didn’t notice them at first.
I got some shrimp that my wrasse ate after he finished the nudibranch. So I got a filefish who seemed uninterested in them and so I began pulling the Pipeorgan and removed 2 monsters from that, and hit 3 or 5 more on the rocks I could remove and I still had a few small ones I could not get to. Then I noticed that those were missing and I’m going to keep the Filefish since he does eat the little ones.