Aiptasia: Do you ever just leave them alone? What happens if you do?

[Placenta89]

I had a frag with it and it came back quick and spread to other rock fast. Had to deal with it right away with aiptasia x. Went from 2-12 in a week. Granted its a new tank I was maybe 3 months in after cycling so I got rid of it right away. But hands off was a good approach for me with my new tank syndrome. After I just accepted the fact of massive amounts of Diatoms I stopped dosing and cleaning and soon after it all dissipated.

 

[Treefer32]

Good gosh that's a lot of aiptasia! That CBB must have a very full belly

I think he wishes he had more! He still hunts for them I think. Probably finds some that hide in crevices until they get large enough for him to eat. I catch him eating pods now. He hunts them constantly... And then once a day he eats my home made frozen food from my hand. He's like my puppy dog of the reef, always so curious as to what I'm doing.

 

[Paul B]

I always have copperbands and filefish who love to eat them which leaves very few, almost none. But if I remove those fish, I get millions.

 

[Carwin]

I got an aiptasia eating peppermint shrimp and it made short work of the aiptasia in my tank. I wanted it gone because it clearly bothered my zoas. The only trick is that some peppermints do not actually eat it so you want to make sure you get one that has an appetite for aiptasia.

 

[craig_19xx]

When I first got in the hobby, I saw aiptasia and didnt know what it was. Thought it looked pretty and it was like getting a free coral... cool!...... psych!!! it overtook the tank and when i learned what it actually was it was out of control, nudibranchs did nothing. or something kept eating my nudis before they could reproduce. anyway, learned that lesson the hard way! lol. now i always get rid of it as soon as i see it... F-aiptasia works brilliant.

Btw.. that was also my first tank ever.. and failed miserably!

 

[sghera64]

I got them in my display. First it was 3 then 9, then they showed up in the connected frag tank (FT). I added a Copper Band Butterfly (CBB) to the display. It wiped all the Aiptasia in less than a week. The frag tank has no natural predators. So, now I leave the Aiptasia grow free in the frag tank and let them drift back into the DT to feed the CBB. Sometimes I will take a piece of rubble or frag rack with a lot of Aiptasia from the FT into the DT. The CBB knows what's going on when he sees my hand enter the water holding a rack or rock. He knows what is on it is just for him. As soon as my hand leaves the water, he is scoping out every angle for his buffet. In less than a few minutes, he will devour up to a dozen aiptasia. I often do this little trick the day before I sell/trade frags from that rack from my FT.

 

[UkiahTheTurtle]

I let my 5 peppermint shrimp eat them

 

[Paul B]

When I first got into the hobby in the early 70s we couldn't even keep aiptasia, but we tried.
Robert Straughn, "The Father of Salt Water Fish Keeping" suggested that we put these in our tanks on rock. They were sold as "anemone rock" and were very sought after.

 

[FLReefer101]

Before I tore down my old system “the first time “ my tank was overwhelmed with them. Once they made it to my overflow it was like a scene from aliens. They are next to impossible to get rid of once they spread to the overflow.

 

[Fishinabarrel]

Aiptasia and flatworms.
The only 2 animals I brag about killing.




....and mosquitos. and scary bugs. And small dogs that bark too much. I might have a murdery problem....

 

[CelestialCorals]

I’ve managed to easily get them off frag plugs which I believe that’s how I’ve aquired most of them, but I bought some zoa colonies at a Reef Fest from a vendor out of state & that developed some large ones which managed to make them spread throughout my 3 tanks. I’ve tried multiple natural ways because other ways just seem to make them spread. So I just bought F Aiptasia to try next, the only other things I haven’t tried are nudi’s as I can’t aquire any & I’ve avoided a copperband because of all of my coral overload that I don’t want it to kill. I did finally find a file fish that’s doing some work in my lagoon tank that I have on the colonies but he’s been a bit slow at it.

I’m not putting any food in there so he’ll only eat the aiptasia, but it’s still taking him some time, I think he’s avoiding the bigger ones so I may just try the F Aiptasia in there before my display tank which I’m afraid to put him in because he’ll just prefer the fish food over the aips. This is part of the reason I want to just get some dry rock but worried spores will transfer onto them too. ‍

 

[Mechanic907]

we had a pretty good outbreak about 8 months ago, added a filefish (it kept one side of the tank clean), added some berghia nudibranch (they seemed to be mainly eaten by our wrasse lol) then about a month ago the aptasia started disappearing quickly. we still have some small patches but they have shrunk to small size ones. we have not tried to removed or kill off any of these smaller patches, they dont seem to be bothering anything at the moment.

 

[Arego]

I don't touch a thing. Something is in the tank that I've never seen that eats them. I've on purpose taken rubble with a few on them and within a day they're nowhere to be seen.

 

[Beefyreefy]

I just kill the annoying ones out in front, and leave the ones that are kind of hidden. I always seem to have the same low number population at all times this way and never had an “outbreak,” so to speak. When I kill them, I’m not even careful. I just scrape them off with a knife and maybe (not always) suck out the guts with a syphon. Oddly enough they never get out of hand and the always show up in the same spots. I also find that they are less likely to spread when your tank is packed with large colonies (hint, hint, for all you frag display tank guys, lol). As always… your mileage may vary!

 

[NickleCheese]

Compared to majano anoneme, Aiptasia is much easier to control.

 

[StevenHasCoral]

I remove them with quickness! Every time I slack it becomes a forest

 

[Rogueaquariums]

I’ve made the mistake of leaving aiptasia alone and not eradicating them sooner and they spread like wild fire. Now when I see any I use F-Aiptasia which has worked very well.

 

[Gordi]

Today I spotted two in the tank so ordered a couple of berghias. But today, I scrubbed one off the back of a Montipora plate with a toothbrush. I killed the other with a shot of lemon juice. "They don't like it up 'em, Captain Mainwaring! They don't like it up'em!"

 

[ying yang]

Today I spotted two in the tank so ordered a couple of berghias. But today, I scrubbed one off the back of a Montipora plate with a toothbrush. I killed the other with a shot of lemon juice. "They don't like it up 'em, Captain Mainwaring! They don't like it up'em!"

Someone watching to much dads army ha ha

 

[Gail Allen]

I am interested in experience of those that left or alone vs wiped it out. I am very new to saltwater and aiptasia was the first thing I dealt with. I ordered Joe's Juice and treated and 2 weeks later found another on the glass. I had read treatment can cause the