Advice for aptasia in a small tank?

[Jamie9]

Well, I’ve managed to get Aptasia into my 40 gallon cube. There was a tiny one in between some zoa polyps on a new frag. I superglued it and thought I got it, then found a bigger one a week later and glued that. And…found one more a few days later (today).

It’s not to the level where I’m super concerned, nor is it at a point where nudibranchs would make sense. It sounds like nudibranchs are used to get it from a plague to where I’m at now where there’s just one or two here and there.

I’m not wanting to do a filefish as my tank has room for perhaps one more fish only, and I’m sort of saving that for a potential wrasse when I one day have some other pest problem.

So, I could keep zapping the aptasia one by one with super glue or kalk paste or something similar…but that’s probably a losing battle.

That brings me to peppermint shrimp. Reading through the forum, definitely some people have had great experiences…but others will never put them in a tank again.

I’ll say one downside is that they steal food from LPS coral and cause damage in the process. But…I’m not planning on having corals that require feeding, so that is perhaps not a big deal for me.

Any other good options that ai haven’t considered? Will I be cursing myself later if I drop 2-3 peppermint shrimp in now?

 

[TX_REEF]

is your rockscape easily moveable? If so, you could easily remove the peppermints if they become a nuisance, and that would be a good choice. Nudibranchs wouldn't hurt - if you can see aiptasia, that means there is aiptasia you can't see, and nudis are great for getting those, without the potential for pestering corals like peps. One thing you DON'T want to do is add both - shrimp will happily snack on berghia.

 

[MC Blowfish]

I added a peppermint shrimp to my tank and it ate my aptasia after a day or two.

 

[tymo92]

I’d go with manual removal via kalk paste and see if that keeps them at bay if you are ok with not fully eradicating for now.

Haven’t tried peps but have heard mixed results. Berghia absolutely will eradicate them (and then starve) as long as you don’t have fish predators.

 

[Mankidiaz]

Well, I’ve managed to get Aptasia into my 40 gallon cube. There was a tiny one in between some zoa polyps on a new frag. I superglued it and thought I got it, then found a bigger one a week later and glued that. And…found one more a few days later (today).

It’s not to the level where I’m super concerned, nor is it at a point where nudibranchs would make sense. It sounds like nudibranchs are used to get it from a plague to where I’m at now where there’s just one or two here and there.

I’m not wanting to do a filefish as my tank has room for perhaps one more fish only, and I’m sort of saving that for a potential wrasse when I one day have some other pest problem.

So, I could keep zapping the aptasia one by one with super glue or kalk paste or something similar…but that’s probably a losing battle.

That brings me to peppermint shrimp. Reading through the forum, definitely some people have had great experiences…but others will never put them in a tank again.

I’ll say one downside is that they steal food from LPS coral and cause damage in the process. But…I’m not planning on having corals that require feeding, so that is perhaps not a big deal for me.

Any other good options that ai haven’t considered? Will I be cursing myself later if I drop 2-3 peppermint shrimp in now?

Aiptasia-x from Red Sea works REALLY well. You have to make sure you align the syringe tip in the middle of the of the Aiptasia without touching the tentacles or it will immediately close up. Be generous with it. The Aiptasia will just disappear within a couple of hours. You do have to keep an eye out for those pesky pests. And while I'm at it, I haven't seen them in maybe about a year.