Aiptasia Squad - Here's my plan!

[Lbrdsoxfan]

True - I wish I had a copprband that did that.

I wish I could have one @ all!

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

I have a silver scat and a Klein's not sure which one actually did the deed but no aiptasia left and I had a horrible infestation. Berghias did nothing at all. Saw them one time and never again. Zoa's are definitely on one of those two fishes menu but haven't actually seen one picking at them.

More than likely the Klein, fwiw I hear the scat won't bother with anything outside of aiptasia.

 

[williamCreery]

Noted! will have a look at this guy as well! Thanks

Have you been able to get control of that aiptasia?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Kleini butterfly all the way

 

[fishnchips17]

For me it's was mostly manual removal with lemon juice and a needle syringe, and my copperband keeps any from coming back.

Aptasia begone!

So this is how bad my aptasia problem was. This is how the rock looks after 5 days. Don't let the copperband fool you, he only eats the really small aptasia. I got rid of 90% of the aptasia myself just by using lemon juice and a needle syringe. If I had known how easy and effective lemon...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Dburr1014]

I have a silver scat and a Klein's not sure which one actually did the deed but no aiptasia left and I had a horrible infestation. Berghias did nothing at all. Saw them one time and never again. Zoa's are definitely on one of those two fishes menu but haven't actually seen one picking at them.

So your sure that it wasn't the berghia working in the background? They will only eat aptaisia and nothing else AND they only work at night.

 

[Dburr1014]

Klein butterfly works (will nip zoa's & possibly LPS), heinochus works (hasn't nipped so far).

As I've said in other threads, chemical eradication is a bad idea as it will spread, BTDT.

Filefish is a mixed bag as well (zoa's and LPS are on the table). I have one in my sps cube and it's doing great to keep the aiptasia @ bay.

Berghia does work, needs no predators and time. Peppermints do work (need the right variety) and same predator issues as berghia. Large wrasses IME equate both as a no go, as I spent a LOT of money over the summer figuring it out any my largish red coris and melnaurus love shrimp & berghia.

You can see the aips in the pic center of tank. Heinochus & Klein rid of it all within a week.

Before:

After: zoom in! Recent FTS!

There are 8 types of heniochus fish. Do you know what type you have?

Heniochus - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[DeanoL]

Very interested in this thread as I just noticed my first aiptasia and tried the manual hot water removal. Fingers crossed.

However, while researching I did read that the Australian Stripey apparently eats Aiptasia too - but could potentially nibble corals as well. My tank isn't big enough for a school of them but I reckon they look cool.

 

[Dburr1014]

Very interested in this thread as I just noticed my first aiptasia and tried the manual hot water removal. Fingers crossed.

However, while researching I did read that the Australian Stripey apparently eats Aiptasia too - but could potentially nibble corals as well. My tank isn't big enough for a school of them but I reckon they look cool.

I hope it was done outside the tank.

 

[rhitee93]

I'm new at this and don't have aiptasia. (yet) I follow these threads to learn for the future.

One thing I don't understand about aiptasia is why they tend to spread if you go after them manually and leave little particles behind, but they don't spread when predators shred them.

 

[Gill the 3rd]

I'm new at this and don't have aiptasia. (yet) I follow these threads to learn for the future.

One thing I don't understand about aiptasia is why they tend to spread if you go after them manually and leave little particles behind, but they don't spread when predators shred them.

They probably do spread, but the pretenders are constantly eating them so you don't see it.

 

[rhitee93]

They probably do spread, but the pretenders are constantly eating them so you don't see it.

Lol. Picture me sitting at my desk with my face in my palm, saying "duh". Pretty obvious now that you point it out...

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

There are 8 types of heniochus fish. Do you know what type you have?

Heniochus - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I'll snap some photos and post up. I know a few varieties of heinochus are fairly reef safe and some are notorious coral eaters. I'm lucky this heinochus isn't so, so far. The Klein is already doing Klein stuff, luckily it's zoa's I don't care much about.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

I'm new at this and don't have aiptasia. (yet) I follow these threads to learn for the future.

One thing I don't understand about aiptasia is why they tend to spread if you go after them manually and leave little particles behind, but they don't spread when predators shred them.

The predators eat the entire aiptasia, versus when attacked with chemicals the aips tend to release spores. That's my understanding anyway.

 

[KDray]

I heard Kliens Blue Head Butterfly is the aptaisa king.

Butterflyfish : Klein's Blue Head Butterfly

Buy Online saltwater fish. healthy hand selected Quarantined saltwater fish, Quality UPS shipping. Buy Now Sale.

www.marinefishez.com

Yes, definitely! I brought a Klein butterfly fish home and it annihilated all of the aptaisa in my tank within the first three or four hours.

 

[Bradley C]

Had a fairly good-sized aptasia outbreak in our 180. LFS suggested file fish. Voila! Two weeks all gone. Bad news is we suspect it nipped the bubble tipped anemones, until also all gone. He ate regular food, so he wasn't going hungry. He is now relegated to solitary confinement in the return water tub.

 

[jhadaway]

I added about 15 peppermint shrimps and added 10 med-large berghias about 7 weeks ago. I have not seen the berghias again and I have not seen a reduction in Aiptasia near the shrimps.
I also bought the majano wand, which I am still testing, but I have a feeling it may trigger spreading of Aiptasia.
Fish I hace not tried because I am worried of coral nipping

Peppermint shrimp eat berghia. A natural predator.

 

[DeanoL]

I hope it was done outside the tank.

Yes it was outside the tank. The aiptasia was on the base of a trachy coral so took the coral out and squirted hot water at the aiptasia a few times and it blew off. So hoping that will work.

Out of curiosity, why is it important to do it out of the tank? The videos I watched on YouTube all had ppl doing it while it was still in the tank.

 

[Dburr1014]

Yes it was outside the tank. The aiptasia was on the base of a trachy coral so took the coral out and squirted hot water at the aiptasia a few times and it blew off. So hoping that will work.

Out of curiosity, why is it important to do it out of the tank? The videos I watched on YouTube all had ppl doing it while it was still in the tank.

Yes, people doing kills inside the tank report months later that they spread.
Any one cell off an aptaisia can grow a new complete aiptasia.

So imagine you use Joe's juice, you squirt it on the aptaisia and it looks like it retracts falls to pieces. Those pieces blow away in the tank and every one of them grow a new aptasia.
Or sometimes they retract and that white stuff comes out of the mouth. That stuff is basically all the eggs to form new aptasia. It's a self defense for survival.

Doing it outside the tank, if it does anting I just describe it can just be rinsed away before going back in the tank.

 

[legionofdoon]

So your sure that it wasn't the berghia working in the background? They will only eat aptaisia and nothing else AND they only work at night.

Yes I waited almost 4 months and in that time the aiptasia actually got worse, add those two and noticed a decrease within several days two weeks later none except in my fuge, which leads me to believe no bergias are left.