Aiptasia

Dbenf24 · Mar 6, 2026

I currently have a 215 with some pretty territorial fish. Bird Wrasse, Purple Tang, Gem Tang, 2 Domino Damsels to be exact. I have developed an aiptasia issue and need them gone. I have gotten 2 Copperband Butterfly now but both have died to the other bullies. What could I use BESIDES chemicals to eradicate this issue? I have a lot of anemone so chemicals are out. Thank you in advance!

Atoll on me · Mar 6, 2026

Berghia Nudibranch

They are the best option

Dbenf24 · Mar 6, 2026

Atoll on me said:
Berghia Nudibranch

They are the best option

10-4 I have messaged Reefengineer on here to see about getting some shipped to me. Thank you!

Marco_99 · Mar 6, 2026

Atoll on me said:
Berghia Nudibranch

They are the best option

Not with a wrasse lol

Dbenf24 · Mar 6, 2026

Marco_99 said:
Atoll on me said:

Berghia Nudibranch

They are the best option

Click to expand...

Not with a wrasse lol

Oof what options?

X-37B · Mar 6, 2026

File fish I have one in every system and have no aptasia. The one in my 150 is as big as my Tomini and Swallotail angel.

slickcdb2000 · Mar 6, 2026

Berghia Nudibranch or File fish... not many other options out there.

Double monti 61 · Mar 6, 2026

If your fish don’t eat them peppermint shrimp have always solved the problem for me.

Auquanut · Mar 6, 2026

I developed a horrible aptaisia infestation in my 110 gal FOWLR tank. I already had a lazy matted filefish that let the invasion spread unchecked. I added a small threadfin butterflyfish, and the result was incredible. I've always kind of suspected that claims that "This fish cleaned out a tankful of aptaisia in a few days." were possibly slightly exaggerated. This guy really did it! It's slightly aggressive and has held it's own with the world's nastiest Whitetail Bristletooth Tang, Harlequin Tusk, a large dogface puffer, a large Foxface, an aggressive Clarki Clown, and an adult Zebra Eel. My remote fuge is an aptaisia factory, but after about a year, there's still not one in the display. I understand they're not considered reef friendly, but I don't have any experience of how damaging they can be.

Dbenf24 · Mar 7, 2026

Double monti 61 said:
If your fish don’t eat them peppermint shrimp have always solved the problem for me.

Bird wrasse eats them for dinner.

Ryan - Serious Reefs · Mar 7, 2026

My experience with the usual suspects:

Aiptasia-eating filefish:
I’ve seen these completely eradicate plague-level infestations. They are inexpensive, easy to find, and currently my go-to option. Occasionally they may pick at corals, but the upside is they are usually pretty easy to catch if that becomes an issue.

Berghia nudibranchs:
Expensive to buy enough, but very effective in lower-flow tanks that do not have natural predators like wrasses. My experience is you often think they are not working… and then one day the Aiptasia are just gone.

Peppermint shrimp:
They will eat small Aiptasia and are great as a preventative option. However, I have personally never seen them solve a large infestation on their own.

Copperband butterflyfish:
They can be very effective, but they are a low-percentage fish for many hobbyists. The highest success rates seem to come from people who take the time to learn their care requirements and use tools like isolation boxes to introduce them properly. Elliot and I actually did a Copperband care guide video if you want to dig deeper into that approach. This link gives you free access.

All of these options tend to work better when combined with some level of manual removal.

n8harp · Mar 7, 2026

Only thing that worked for me and it worked within a week in my 26g was a file fish. Unfortunately I think it got a taste for my Duncan and may lose my Duncan. But it hasn’t touched my acans. I’ll take not being able to have a Duncan over aiptasia. It got super bad and the filefish cleared it in a week or two

Tripod1404 · Mar 7, 2026

Copperband is probably the best fish option that is also mostly reef safe. Mine drove aiptasia to extinction over a month or so without touching a single coral.

But it is a difficult fish to care, you would need to find a healthy individual and put a lot of effort to get it to eat non-live benthic foods. If you can get it to eat, IMO, it is an otherwise hardy fish.

Mine went from live mussels -> live clams -> frozen clams-> frozen mysis in clam shell -> floating frozen mysis -> masstick in clam shell -> pellets in clam shell -> floating pellets

Now it tryies everything I put into the tank, including nori. It doesn't eat it, but it basicly associated that anything I put into the tank is a potential food, which is the behavior you like to induce with these fish.

legionofdoon · Mar 7, 2026

Australian Stripey. Expensive but I've tried, berghias, copper bands(tang casualty after a month of no problems) peppermint and Kukenthal shrimp. Nothing touched it. I had a Klein and it was awesome until it turned rogue, so far the stripey hasn't touched anything else. I have a mixed reef and so far my hammers and Duncan are fine. My tank was covered in aptasia it was even growing out of the sand bed. Now just the ones in recessed holes are left.

Ben Pedersen · Mar 7, 2026

Australian Stripeys are amazing. I see them online for $70. They are hardy, cool, and get the job done. I have 2, but one would do fine.

Ziggy17 · Mar 7, 2026

File fish and manually deleting them with Kalk in a syringe. The file fish will eat smaller ones as they pop up, but the established ones will likely require manual deletion. I picked up the fish from a LFS and I knew it ate Aiptasia. This is what I did and I’ve been Aiptasia free for a couple years now.
Nudis will be the most expensive food you have ever bought for your wrasses. Don’t bother wasting your money there. I know first hand.

Ziggy17 · Mar 7, 2026

Atoll on me said:
Berghia Nudibranch

They are the best option

Not with a wrasse.

Dom · Mar 7, 2026

Dbenf24 said:
I currently have a 215 with some pretty territorial fish. Bird Wrasse, Purple Tang, Gem Tang, 2 Domino Damsels to be exact. I have developed an aiptasia issue and need them gone. I have gotten 2 Copperband Butterfly now but both have died to the other bullies. What could I use BESIDES chemicals to eradicate this issue? I have a lot of anemone so chemicals are out. Thank you in advance!

Yeah... currently dealing with the same issue. There is no way to eradicate them without a complete sterilization, which is what I am currently doing.

Nudibranches do a good job. They reproduce quickly and will thrive until the last Aiptasia is gone. Then they die off. I've also read that peppermint shrimp are a good alternative.

I did try chemicals (H2O2), but not directly in the display. I pulled the rock with aiptasia and put them in a mix of salt water and H2O2.

At first, I though I might have success. The corals did NOT like the H2O2 concentration required to kill aiptasia.

They were alive when I pulled them from the bath and then placed them in a grow out tank. I really thought that what remained would recover.

They didn't.

I was hoping that coral would have a higher tolerance to H2O2 than Aiptasia. It looked this way at first. Ultimately, they were very close and perished from treatment.