Aiptasia spreading!!

[Chris'sReef]

Hi all, I have an issue with aiptasia anemones I'm my reefer 250. I dip all my corals and I used try rock but they've made their way into my reef. I have been using Red sea Aiptasia X but in all truth this seems to be making them spread even more. I have 2 peppermint shrimps in the tank that don't seem to touch them either. I've been contemplating a Aiptasia eating filefish but not sure how safe they are with corals. Has anyone got any tips or experiences they can share of how I can get rid of these things?

Chris.

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

I’ve used green files countless times vs aiptasias in tanks with every kind of coral under the sun, and have yet to experience a problem.

It won’t look like they’re doing much, because they hit the small ones first. But then one day you look in the tank, and the aiptasias are gone. Well...there will always be one or two big ones left way inside of a rock, but you can deal with those.

 

[Chris'sReef]

Is this the one I should be looking at?

 

[jcdeng]

my peppermints took care of mines, when they passed, I tried copperband, it also took care of the problem but downside is my acans are gone.

 

[Chris'sReef]

I have 2 peppermints they don't seem to touch them there's loads of small ones all over the rock.

 

[caelanuk]

Scats also eat them. Read an article recently that they eat aptasia anemones and don't touch coral. The filefish do work however the one I had after clearing the aptasia and manjo's started on my bubble tip anemone. Peppermint shrimp work in groups. If they are not eating them feed the aptasia and the shrimp will steal the food and then start eating the anemone.

 

[Chris'sReef]

Should I try more peppermints? How many in a reefer 250?

 

[caelanuk]

I had 4 peppermint in a 500 litre tank. Feed the aptasia with mysis when the shrimps are close they will steal it and then pick at the anemone. A File fish will clear them if you try them. But once they have gone it may pick at anemones and corals. Scats do work but attain a large size and would need rehoming personally I would not add a scat to my tank.

 

[Chris'sReef]

No if I add anything it'll be a filefish. So 2 peppermints in a 250 is about right then I guess. I'll give that a go but I'm dubious about using anymore aiptasia x it seems to be making it worse, maybe I'm applying it wrong.

 

[H2Ocooled]

You might want to check out F-Aiptasia a lot of people are having very good success with it. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/f-aiptasia.542934/

 

[Ldballoon4]

I would add a File fish. It may take a while to eat them but they usually do. Take out your acans and any prized zoos.

 

[Ldballoon4]

I would add a File fish. It may take a while to eat them but they usually do. Take out your acans and any prized zoos.

 

[doughboy]

they are not called pests for nothing.
be very selective where you get corals you add to your tank.
anyway, aiptasia x or kalk paste will work, only if you do it as often as possible. like scan your entire tank every day for a couple months and apply aiptasia x or kalk paste right away on every single one you see, big one, small one, every one you spot. don't skip a day, or worse, depend on other livestock to get rid of it. they will never be as reliable as you doing it everyday.

 

[Seamore2001]

A few weeks ago I got aiptasia from ~30lb of LR I got from a fellow reefer. I have six peppermints in my 50gal reef, who have taken some of the aiptasia out; however they prefer to feed on the food I put in for the fish and corals.

For many of the aiptasia I use kalk paste, which works very well. I don't do it every day - once a week seems to be enough. At this point I seem to have gotten them all, but don't rule out some still in hard to spot areas. My goal is to get all of the ones that are visible with kalk paste and leave the peppermints to work on the hidden ones.

I've dealt with aiptasia in the past and this methodology works well for me. In one tank years ago that had a bad infestation I did get a copperband butterfly, which did a terrific job of eradicating the aiptasia. The CBB was a model citizen, but I didn't have any LPS in that tank, so can't speak to whether they'd nip those.

 

[Jvesche20]

they are not called pests for nothing.
be very selective where you get corals you add to your tank.
anyway, aiptasia x or kalk paste will work, only if you do it as often as possible. like scan your entire tank every day for a couple months and apply aiptasia x or kalk paste right away on every single one you see, big one, small one, every one you spot. don't skip a day, or worse, depend on other livestock to get rid of it. they will never be as reliable as you doing it everyday.

I agree with this. Check the corals and the corals nearby before purchasing. I went to a new lfs to sell my chaeto. I was looking at the zoa plugs. I noticed a few of these plugs had aiptasia. I said screw that and just got my self a sps frag instead.

 

[caelanuk]

Should I try more peppermints? How many in a reefer 250?

I would add a couple more if their are loads of small ones. A shrimp can only eat so much.

 

[Chris'sReef]

Looks ok but I don't think I can get it in the uk

 

[Chris'sReef]

Ok I'll keep up with the aiptaisia x daily and I'll get a couple more peppermint shrimps maybe it's because I've been slack with the aiptasia x they've got a head start on me. I don't really have many zoas or acans just a nice cluster of rastas that's it but don't want them munched if at all possible!!

 

[Bj’s Reef]

The file fish worked for me. I bought two for my 150 gallon tank. One of them ate my acans and zoas. The other ate the aptasia. I removed the acan eater. The thing is they have to get real hungry before they eat the aptasia. So as mentioned in earlier post, remove what you don’t want them to eat or take a chance on it not eating anything valuable. So it’s a crap shoot, however if you do nothing the aptasia will get out of hand. The chemical methods I tried in my opinion caused them to spread. So if I were you I would give them a try.

 

[Biokabe]

Berghia nudibranches. They're the only 100% surefire way to eliminate aiptasia without any risk to anything else. All of the other aiptasia-control critters can also eat other things and may decide that your corals are a tastier snack than aiptasia. Chemical methods are very spotty, at best. Berghia are obligate predators of aiptasia - they eat aiptasia and nothing else.

The downside to berghia is that they do take some time to work through your aiptasia, and once they can't find any more, they'll starve and die. So unless you have an aiptasia culture, berghia are an occasional treatment that you'll need to apply when aiptasia populations start spreading. Some critters also think that berghia are a tasty snack, especially certain species of wrasse. If you have a very predatory tank, you might not be able to use berghia. Individually they're not too bad - usually $10-$15/ea - but you will need multiple to effectively control your aiptasia. For a Reefer 250, you'd probably want 6-8. Might be able to work with as few as 4, but that would increase the time it would take them to tame your aiptasia. They breed and spread readily in your tank, but once they work through your aiptasia, they will die off. If you're feeling noble, you might try and find some local reefers with an aiptasia problem and give the berghia to them to keep the berghia from dying.