Aiptasia Serial Killer

[zoanthid26]

I've tried pepperment shrimp, copperband butterflies, tahetian butterflys and apatasia x. I find the pepperment shrimp do the best job, especially quality marine's monoco pepperments. The only downfall to using shrimp is they can't tackle larger apatasias, only very tiny ones. Generally I use apatasia x for large apatasias and I let the pepperments take care of the small ones. Copperbands work well but they are hit or miss, some never touch apatasia, some gobble it up! Tahetian butterflies work really well but in my experience they aren't quite as reef safe as a copperband.

They also make an electric wand that zaps the apatasia with an electric current. Supposedly it is totally safe for fish but I'd be very concerned about having a stray electrical current in my tank.

 

[zoanthid26]

Also I forgot to mention, most pepperment shrimp (not monacos) are canabbalistic, once the apatasia is gone they may eat each other.

 

[nelson.jdautobody]

Copperband worked for me. Got some rock from a friend that was completed covered and my CBB cleared that up within a few days.

+1 on the copperband fish. i had an aptasia outbreak and tried all kinds of mthods liquids, peppermint shrimps, etc. i put a copperbanded my lfs had semi-trained to eat aptasia and i couldnt find a single aptasia after just days in my tank. since my tank is smaller and copperband are somewhat notorius for being difficult to keep (i have lost 2 in my tank) i just borrowed it for a week and took it back to my lfs (obviously they know me well enough to allow me to do that). now every once in a while if i have an issue i just chuck one in there for a week then take it back the following week....in fact im about ready for another round of clean up-lol.