Aiptasia as a Pest - and HOW to get rid of it

OP
OP
SHNICI

SHNICI

Well-Known Member and Coral Cabin owner
View Badges
Joined
Jun 20, 2018
Messages
1,573
Reaction score
1,440
Location
Kent
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I'm a SOLD Filefish person. I tried Aiptasia X (it made my nems extremely unhappy), I tried kalk, I tried super glue & even tried lazer method. All of those methods did nothing but irritate aiptasia, and aiptasia is a form of anemone - you upset it it splits/multiplies. IE: I would fry aiptasia w/lazer - next day there was twice as many. FINALLY I added a pair of ORA raised filefish and within a week my aiptasia vanished. According to folks at ORA - Filefish are shy and usually eat at night - so it might take up to two weeks before they devour aiptasia.
Thanks for that information Can you tell us which was the particular one is the pair you got Please ORA - Filefish?
 
OP
OP
SHNICI

SHNICI

Well-Known Member and Coral Cabin owner
View Badges
Joined
Jun 20, 2018
Messages
1,573
Reaction score
1,440
Location
Kent
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Every one Please if you have and can upload and Photos of the animals you are been using. I want to update the main post with much as possible information for everyone reading the thread Please.
I'll appreciate every post from you to can build the perfect guide. Soon I'll check how many and what methods are been successful and not, and Will update each treatment/option by this.
At the moment I'm collecting information as much as possible.
 
OP
OP
SHNICI

SHNICI

Well-Known Member and Coral Cabin owner
View Badges
Joined
Jun 20, 2018
Messages
1,573
Reaction score
1,440
Location
Kent
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Lovely!
Just in case and if I'm not disturbing you asking for that, but do you have photo of it (Personal one), I don't want to upload the Photo/image from the ORA website. If you can upload one to can add it to the main post I'll save me time looking for non branded and agreed to use them free (most google Images may be subject to copyright).
 

Mical

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Aug 7, 2017
Messages
3,790
Reaction score
6,404
Location
Montrose
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Lovely!
Just in case and if I'm not disturbing you asking for that, but do you have photo of it (Personal one), I don't want to upload the Photo/image from the ORA website. If you can upload one to can add it to the main post I'll save me time looking for non branded and agreed to use them free (most google Images may be subject to copyright).
I'll get you one in the morning as it's currently "lights out" here
 

Sisterlimonpot

Effortless Perfection
View Badges
Joined
Jul 15, 2009
Messages
3,804
Reaction score
7,816
Location
Litchfield Park
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Here's my CBB swimming with the gang...

zyTCXkzl.jpg
 

JMR5

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 16, 2020
Messages
69
Reaction score
47
Location
PA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
We've had two file fish, and both ate aptasia. One died, but the other one lives in the frag tanks, I just move him when I see aptasia in the other tank. He eats them quickly, though I did worry he was also nipping at coral, but I don't think so (aptasia are gone and corals are happy again). Aptasia X is ok, but tough to use (if they don't ingest it, it's pretty useless). There were two small ones in my DT, in the sand. I'm wondering if my tiger conch ate them, as they're gone, but I don't think I've ever heard of conchs doing that. Berghia died before doing any good.
 

CaliCajun

New Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 5, 2020
Messages
22
Reaction score
14
Location
Lafayette, LA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Peppermint shrimp and more importantly a Green Scat took my infestation down to a sustainable level. The first picture is where I was, the whole tank looked like that. In the second picture bottom right is the Green Scat in front of the once infested rock.
20191013_120603.jpg
20200906_091712.jpg
 
OP
OP
SHNICI

SHNICI

Well-Known Member and Coral Cabin owner
View Badges
Joined
Jun 20, 2018
Messages
1,573
Reaction score
1,440
Location
Kent
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Here you go, my apologies for the photo quality it was early. As I mentioned mine are shy and needed to be coaxed out with a "mini pellet snowstorm"

File 1.jpg file 2.jpg File 3.jpg
Thank you, I'll use the second photo. And probably will zoom a bit on it if you don't mind. All look really cool.
 
OP
OP
SHNICI

SHNICI

Well-Known Member and Coral Cabin owner
View Badges
Joined
Jun 20, 2018
Messages
1,573
Reaction score
1,440
Location
Kent
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Peppermint shrimp and more importantly a Green Scat took my infestation down to a sustainable level. The first picture is where I was, the whole tank looked like that. In the second picture bottom right is the Green Scat in front of the once infested rock.
20191013_120603.jpg
20200906_091712.jpg
What I'm reading about them, they grow surprisingly large. And usually are brackish water, but can be acclimated to NSW. Eat really much and are a bit messy (don't know what they mean with that). But it look good there.
So this one take care of the aiptasia only? Is it picking on something else like Another Anem. or something else GSP, Zoas etc .. ?
 

Crotalus

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 20, 2019
Messages
143
Reaction score
146
Location
Dallas
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I'm in a quandary about what to do. I'm in the very early stages. I have 2 or 3 pop up every week. I used super glue. They kept appearing in other places. I take the rock out when possible and peroxide and hot water it. They appear somewhere else. I've used Kalk paste. Right now I don't see any. I got a file fish about 3 weeks ago but I'm told it can take a while for them to start eating them if ever. I'm thinking about getting a couple of Berghia, but can 2 cover a 200 gallon tank? I don't want to get more because I have so few for them to eat. The last Copperband I got only lived 3 months even though I put in a bottle of pods every month. So right now I manually attack every one I see.
 

CaliCajun

New Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 5, 2020
Messages
22
Reaction score
14
Location
Lafayette, LA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
What I'm reading about them, they grow surprisingly large. And usually are brackish water, but can be acclimated to NSW. Eat really much and are a bit messy (don't know what they mean with that). But it look good there.
So this one take care of the aiptasia only? Is it picking on something else like Another Anem. or something else GSP, Zoas etc .. ?

Yes, they can grow large up to 12" I believe and a 125 gallon is the recommended minimum tank size. Juveniles are born in fresh or brackish water and most adults live in near full marine conditions. My local fish store keeps them in hypo about 1.015 and I had no problem drip acclimating him to my tank over several hours. He has done great and only goes after pest aptasia, I have had no issue with nipping at other corals. So far has been a very hardy fish with a great personality for me.
 
Last edited:

PR_nano

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 27, 2019
Messages
1,448
Reaction score
1,685
Location
Orlando, FL
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Just received the joe juice package, the active ingredient is Calcium hydroxide. Tested on a couple of large aiptasia and notice strings coming out of the body. I will monitor until the weekend the area and hit a few more on the weekend since I have an infestation.

Saw one of the berghia in the return chamber not sure how he got there and another in the sand bed. I'm thinking these were offspring due to the size but haven't seen the larger ones. I also have a ton of bristleworm which could eat the nudi eggs.

JoesJuice.jpg Aiptasia_Stings.jpg
 
OP
OP
SHNICI

SHNICI

Well-Known Member and Coral Cabin owner
View Badges
Joined
Jun 20, 2018
Messages
1,573
Reaction score
1,440
Location
Kent
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I'm in a quandary about what to do. I'm in the very early stages. I have 2 or 3 pop up every week. I used super glue. They kept appearing in other places. I take the rock out when possible and peroxide and hot water it. They appear somewhere else. I've used Kalk paste. Right now I don't see any. I got a file fish about 3 weeks ago but I'm told it can take a while for them to start eating them if ever. I'm thinking about getting a couple of Berghia, but can 2 cover a 200 gallon tank? I don't want to get more because I have so few for them to eat. The last Copperband I got only lived 3 months even though I put in a bottle of pods every month. So right now I manually attack every one I see.
Not sure what to say. Berghia will have to find and to eat them, if the aiptasias are close to each other, probably putting the nudis near the aiptasia, they will find and eat them (and the area there). Someone say is getting 10 for 170 like I member, but not report back what's done there.
Really can't tell you which one will be 100% successful for you, I can say what I test already, like most of the methods I put in the main, work well for me, not all are that good, I only don't test ever the Filefish and the peppermint shrimp. 3 Berghia work very well for friend of mi having 150 tank, and he had to bread Aiptasia and put in the tank ;Woot ,to can keep the Berghia alive.
Good luck, you can try, 2 I don't think will be enough for 200, but if they catch them at the locations where you have aiptasia..., probably will be good point.
 
OP
OP
SHNICI

SHNICI

Well-Known Member and Coral Cabin owner
View Badges
Joined
Jun 20, 2018
Messages
1,573
Reaction score
1,440
Location
Kent
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Just received the joe juice package, the active ingredient is Calcium hydroxide. Tested on a couple of large aiptasia and notice strings coming out of the body. I will monitor until the weekend the area and hit a few more on the weekend since I have an infestation.

Saw one of the berghia in the return chamber not sure how he got there and another in the sand bed. I'm thinking these were offspring due to the size but haven't seen the larger ones. I also have a ton of bristleworm which could eat the nudi eggs.

JoesJuice.jpg Aiptasia_Stings.jpg
do you turn all the pumps off during the treatment with the JoesJuice ?
And the strings I think can reborn in new aiptasia, and they need to be melted or sucked before they spread.
 
OP
OP
SHNICI

SHNICI

Well-Known Member and Coral Cabin owner
View Badges
Joined
Jun 20, 2018
Messages
1,573
Reaction score
1,440
Location
Kent
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Yeah, I turn off return and wavemaker 10-15 minutes prior to treatment and leave off for at least 30minutes post.
Next time if you can, try to suck up the falling strings, as they can be not melted/killed completely, and you can get ne aiptasia from them
 
Last edited:
Back
Top