Aiptasia: is it something we have to live with?

[HiddenUser]

I'm struggling with an infestation in my 210 gallon main display. Aiptasia x does not seem to work - they come back in several weeks in larger numbers. I have just added a file fish and awaiting results.

Do all copperbands eat aiptasia? This may be my last weapon as I'm afraid the melanurus wrasse might eat them?

IME no. I've had 3 CBB and none of them did anything with Aiptasia.

If you can remove the Melanurus Wrasse, try some Berhiga Nudis....I've tried everything and never had luck...After adding about 30 Berhia Nudis to my 270G system I'm seeing them disappear, I'm also seeing them out at night when I've been checking things out with a flashlight after lights out. Yes, it was an expensive investment, but this way I'm not having to nuke my tank and start over. I had Aiptasia in places where I have no idea how a CBB or Filefish would reach...

In the month I've had them I've noticed the Aiptasia population be cut back by about 1/3rd if not more!

The only way I could see Aiptasia being prevented is to QT everything going into your tank that is wet. I've seen these things attached to frags, snails, hermits, and I'm pretty sure at some point my Foxface had a little baby Aiptasia stuck to his side too!

 

[BoomCorals]

Scraping aiptasia off rocks won’t work. Even a single cell left behind is enough to grow a new aiptasia.

 

[BoomCorals]

IME no. I've had 3 CBB and none of them did anything with Aiptasia.

If you can remove the Melanurus Wrasse, try some Berhiga Nudis....I've tried everything and never had luck...After adding about 30 Berhia Nudis to my 270G system I'm seeing them disappear, I'm also seeing them out at night when I've been checking things out with a flashlight after lights out. Yes, it was an expensive investment, but this way I'm not having to nuke my tank and start over. I had Aiptasia in places where I have no idea how a CBB or Filefish would reach...

In the month I've had them I've noticed the Aiptasia population be cut back by about 1/3rd if not more!

The only way I could see Aiptasia being prevented is to QT everything going into your tank that is wet. I've seen these things attached to frags, snails, hermits, and I'm pretty sure at some point my Foxface had a little baby Aiptasia stuck to his side too!

Yep. They can attach and grow even on live tissue of fish and coral.

 

[tankstudy]

I'm pretty okay with them now. I've figured out how to manage their numbers, limit their food source, and so they aren't much of an issue. Unless they are sitting directly in the middle of my zoa/palys, they aren't much of a concern. I generally check the tank once a week and remove any if I see them. Compared to spiders, red bugs and other pests, aptasia is pretty easy to deal with and they doesn't massacre your coral collection.

They are pretty tough creatures. Even with a 4 month QT system and about 1 dozen variations of dips, they still managed to slip thru.

 

[brandon429]

wrong boom

we didn't scrape off rock, we dug from up under and rinsed, huge difference. we took substrate away that didn't even have aip on it, out of being thorough.

documented tons of times. It works 100% exactly as listed, and the partial injections cause that condition more than anything. external rinse work is how the pedal bits dont get back in, and thats a lot of work which makes most decline the offer, and they'll go right into anemone farming and hopeful catchup instead.

surgical removal is your best hope, or not. been warned by someone who has corrected this in about a hundred picos. by all means, keep them in

all you have to do is lose one tank to them, to change a way of thinking away from farming them on purpose Ill promise that.

the single spot I had one in my tank was down low, right near a brain coral polyp lodged into the live rock the polyp was overgrowing. I dug it out with a knife, the hole filled back in w brain coral over time and that was the last I heard of it.

100% verified in person 2016 from friends tank the injection approach fail from an easily lifted out rock, and spread to an entire tank, contributing to a takedown loss. surgery would have stopped the aiptasia cold. darn tough lessons, anchored invaders, yep.

 

[BoomCorals]

wrong boom

documented tons of times. It works 100% exactly as listed, and the partial injections cause that condition more than anything. external rinse work is how the pedal bits dont get back in, and thats a lot of work which makes most decline the offer, and they'll go right into anemone farming and hopeful catchup instead.

surgical removal is your best hope, or not. been warned by someone who has corrected this in about a hundred picos. by all means, keep them in

all you have to do is lose one tank to them, to change a way of thinking away from farming them on purpose Ill promise that.

the single spot I had one in my tank was down low, right near a brain coral polyp lodged into the live rock the polyp was overgrowing. I dug it out with a knife, the hole filled back in w brain coral over time and that was the last I heard of it.

100% verified in person 2016 from friends tank the injection approach fail from an easily lifted out rock, and spread to an entire tank, contributing to a takedown loss. surgery would have stopped the aiptasia cold. darn tough lessons, anchored invaders, yep.

http://www.reefaquarium.com/2013/aiptasia-anemones/

Citation, plus scientific references - a single cell is enough to grow a new aiptasia.

 

[brandon429]

my references far outnumber that one, though

OP, keep this anemone if you want, and if someone else's references indicate you should do so, by all means keep it. What in that reference says an injection method doesn't leave 200 cells?

lastly, our rinse technique accounts for a single cell, we have accounted for that, which is why you can reference about a thousand uninvaded pico reefs across the world right now, aiptasia included.

ps, when ya'll find a pico with an aip, send em my way don't link them stuff not related to tank curing.

all we do is cure tanks, right and left, so many I cannot count them, Id never mislead regarding an invasion.

a specific reason my pico reef is brazenly old is due to exactly whats posted.

been warned.

 

[BoomCorals]

my references far outnumber that one, though

OP, keep this anemone if you want, and if someone else's references indicate you should do so, by all means keep it. What in that reference says an injection method doesn't leave 200 cells?

lastly, our rinse technique accounts for a single cell, we have accounted for that, which is why you can reference about a thousand uninvaded pico reefs across the world right now, aiptasia included.

ps, when ya'll find a pico with an aip, send em my way don't link them stuff not related to tank curing.

all we do is cure tanks, right and left, so many I cannot count them, Id never mislead regarding an invasion.

a specific reason my pico reef is brazenly old is due to exactly whats posted.

been warned.

If you have scientific references to post that indicate a single cell will not allow an aiptasia to reproduce I’d like to see them.

I never said injection method works to eradicate completely (it doesn’t). You’re putting a lot of words into my mouth. You told people to scrape them off then rinse. Cells stick to the rock and rinse won’t remove them. You’d have to first remove all parts of the rock the aiptasia was connected to. In which case yes that will work.

 

[boozeman27]

Anyone ever use this crazy thing?

https://www.marinedepot.com/Majano_...minator-PS_Aquatics_LLC-4P1111-FIMIMW-vi.html

 

[40B Knasty]

Anyone ever use this crazy thing?

https://www.marinedepot.com/Majano_...minator-PS_Aquatics_LLC-4P1111-FIMIMW-vi.html

I wouldn't use it since it says at the bottom "note this does not fully kill aiptasia."
For a $130 I would rather pull the rocks and get $130 worth of dead rock to replace them and nuke the ones with aiptasia on it and start another tank.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Yes and no. Aiptasia can slowly twiddle away but they are very difficult to get rid of since they can live in toilet water LOL. Most people do a lousy job of killing them which just makes them spread out even more. If you have 10 aiptasia you better kill at least 8 of them on your first attempt otherwise they will triple in 2 weeks. Until my last failed attempt to kill few aiptasia with a lousy home made PVC syringe device I realized I just made the aiptasia release 100 of new aiptasia making the problem worst.

So now I plan on wiping them all out for good. I still feel my old tank gets the award for "worst outbreak in history" which is now aiptasia free for 4 years. (will try and find a picture but have a post on RC)


I just ordered this and used about 20ML of aiptasia X and covered the aiptasia areas until they where blanketed with white stuff. I will have to melt the tip and bend it since the aiptasia facing downwards are difficult to kill. I will just epoxy the ones on these areas since I found aiptasia don't really make it on epoxy or flat surfaces because of algae grazers, worms, snails and hermit crabs are constantly abusing the surface. They always find a small hole to call home so block those hard to reach holes and make the surface flat as can be in hard to reach areas such as back and sides


This is by far the best and easiest tool for killing aiptasia with any juice of your choice.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01MYV7EHN/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Roy 9121]

I added a Peppermint shrimp to my tank, haven't seen an Aiptasia since.

 

[brandon429]

battle

we're mostly agreeing
I agree a single cell w be mass problems, that's why I opened with the hardest volley we use in tank correction threads as applied to aiptasia. if it was a cyano invasion, Id not be concerned, merely a sandbed rinse to catch up there so a keeper can delay as long as they want. working outside of tank with dedicated rinses and destruction of anchor points is how to avoid bringing back in single cells.

its been used in my old pico reef for as long as I can recall, which is why not a single invader exists in the reef system at all.

But with aips, = playing with fire every minute you can visually see one in the tank.

To remove the whole rock out, and perhaps clip off the corner where the anem exists is pure gold, don't miss that detail. it means you don't have to sever the actual anemone, these varied shapes of rocks and corals sometimes allow for universal removal wo actually disturbing the polyp target. seen it many many times and called it the same, a strategic bone clipper cuts off the whole anemone and an expendable chunk of lr which you could easily put into hot tap for a while then put back in if critical.

*guaranteed fact in our tank correction threads sometimes we see posts of an aip located on a tiny live rock outcrop, or the edge of a dead coral.

those are clip the section off type actions, the whole tiny portion of anchor goes, and the actual anem isn't even cut in those types of removals.

plan your work around the specifics.

its in honor of the one cell statement.

Im only saying that link doesn't connect us to cure threads, we encounter aip posts lots of times in our threads and this is the method we use so they haven't had to post back.

Others are tricky, they do pull back into a hole or are surrounded by zos, get creative and still use excision is my recommend at all times.
For smaller systems or creatively shaped rock points, nothing beats surgery we think. when not possible, a host of grazers is out there as well and the injection systems are probably the largest used approach agreed.

 

[lou dog420]

My tank got completely infested last year, I literally had hundreds of aptasia in my system. I purchased 4 berghia nudis to combat the problem. Well it took about 2 and a half to 3 months but the berghias did eventually wipe out the aptasia. A few months went by and then I bought some new corals and BAM, got aptasia again. I have now added a copperband and he is an awesome aptasia eating machine. My sump and refugium still have aptasia in them, but I now look at the ones in the sump as a constant renewable food source for my copperband.

 

[Aqua 59]

I ended up getting a infestation of them from a frag. Tried kalk paste , glue and then caved into peppermint shrimp. They have done the job but I want to find a Molly Miller blennie. Aptasia is one of their favorite foods in the wild and they’re omnivores so they’ll eat everything else including algae.

I didn't know that blennies ate aiptasia. Cool!

 

[drtrash]

I have some in my refugium so do i treat or dump chaeto and start over? How do i kill in sump when i remove chaeto, leave dry for a day, add fresh water for a few days or? Have a cbb in main display and have not seen any main tank

 

[cracker]

The Copper Band is my favorite fish. Every one I have kept ,4 has taken care of any apastia I ever saw in my tanks over the years.

 

[Isaac Alves]

I've had a mild infestation. Been using a laser the past three days. So fun and satisfying frying them up.

 

[dimidragos]

I've had a mild infestation. Been using a laser the past three days. So fun and satisfying frying them up.

Hello!what kind of laser?? they dont melt in water?