Anyone have success with killing Aiptasia?

[rusty hannon]

I recently bought a filefish because my lfs said "they eat aiptasia" . I figured since such a cool looking fish and rather that than using more chemicals I'd buy but so far in the week I've had him/her hasn't eaten a single one!

thanks for the note.lots of ideas n seems like it depends on individual guys likeing the meal infront of em.wow what a cr. shoot.thanks.R

 

[John08007]

Ive also heard of people using kalkwasser and even cooler high powered lasers to melt them. The kalk way is probably easy to find on youtube

 

[2Wheelsonly]

I am scared to use aiptasiax, for years it seemed like my 300G had maybe 5-6 of these but one started getting so big I hit with aiptasiax. Within weeks I ended up for probably 300-400 of these after kill that one.

I ordered $350 worth of bhergia and they cleaned out the tank within 3-4 months. I do see some aiptasia babies now that my nudi have perished so I may invest in shrimp.

 

[rusty hannon]

Ive also heard of people using kalkwasser and even cooler high powered lasers to melt them. The kalk way is probably easy to find on youtube

Thank you

I am scared to use aiptasiax, for years it seemed like my 300G had maybe 5-6 of these but one started getting so big I hit with aiptasiax. Within weeks I ended up for probably 300-400 of these after kill that one.

I ordered $350 worth of bhergia and they cleaned out the tank within 3-4 months. I do see some aiptasia babies now that my nudi have perished so I may invest in shrimp.

Thanks for your help.sou D's like the nudis are more likely as a species to rid them.really messed up last night pulling out a few to figure out what they were.now lots more.ugh happy reefing n safe ridein.R

 

[bblumberg]

thank you very much for that bit of knoeledg n for shareing your tank story w me.greatly enjoyed especaily rite out of the gate this morn.have a great one n nice to meet youR

You are welcome and good luck.

 

[Deaf clown]

Copper band butterfly fish and aiptasia eating file fish worked for me- the nudi’s not so much. The copper band was fast at eating them but only had it for 6 months and never saw him eat anything I put in the tank. The filefish took awhile before I didn’t see any aiptasia and much uglier however it eats only frozen which I feed once a day.

 

[Crotalus]

I've had 2 show up in the last month. Never seen them before. Luckily they were both on rocks I could pull out. I removed them with a toothbrush and sprayed the area with peroxide. No more have appeared. I tried a laser on one of them first. It shriveled but I wasn't satisfied that it was dead.

 

[NanoSteam]

I gave up after aiptasia-x caused an aiptasia bloom everywhere. I broke and paid the premium for Bhergia Nudis. Put them in on Tuesday, and they immediately started doing their bidding. Yesterday morning I noticed the two largest aiptasia had disappeared overnight and more gone today.

 

[zoomonster]

AiptasiaX and a little patience works wonders. I had an outbreak and for several weeks just kept treating as I saw them. Key is to get it into their mouth so they can't expel cells and reproduce. That involves gently injecting so by the time they retract and close the tentacles wrap around the material. At least for now aiptasia free.

 

[charged]

Berghia nudibranch
They will wipe out an infestation in a month. If you have a couple aiptasia and can pull the rock they are on I recommend doing that and cutting them off the rock. Look for them in your sump or overflow too as they are probably there. Good luck!

Found some in my overflow. Any suggestions on best way to rid them? Some are difficult to get to.

 

[Keithh]

Peppermint shrimp have worked extremely well for me. Three shrimp eliminated at least 20 aiptasia in about a week.

 

[NanoSteam]

AiptasiaX and a little patience works wonders. I had an outbreak and for several weeks just kept treating as I saw them. Key is to get it into their mouth so they can't expel cells and reproduce. That involves gently injecting so by the time they retract and close the tentacles wrap around the material. At least for now aiptasia free.

When did you treat with the Aiptasia-x? About a month later I had an explosion of them thinking the aiptasaia-x worked.

 

[zoomonster]

When did you treat with the Aiptasia-x? About a month later I had an explosion of them thinking the aiptasaia-x worked.

It just takes time and repeated treatments. I have not used aiptasiax in close to a year. As a matter of fact I was cleaning up the other day and noticed my bottle had dried up. Trust me I was repeatedly scanning the tank and killing anything new I found and sometimes larger ones took at least 2 treatments. Pretty sure nothing in my tank that eats them either.

 

[Jim8o]

There was a post earlier about using hot water. Ill try and find it.

 

[Stigigemla]

I have used them all.

Peppermint shrimps have to be trained or it can take a few weeks before they recognize Aiptasia as food. I move over stones with Aiptasia to the tank where I sell the peppermint shrimps and 2 or 3 weeks after the import they clean the stones. So I am happy to have other tanks where some Aiptasia appears. When the peppermint shrimps cleaned a tank from Aiptasia it usually stays clean. If they attack large polyp corals it is just to feed the shrimp before the coral. If they have a big chunk of food they just hide until it is eaten.

The Acreichthys tomentosa filefish is sometimes even slower to learn.
They are not as meticulous as the shrimps so if You take out the fish the anemones often come back after a few months. And they attack the sifon of many snails. They have killed a lot of Nassarius by my customers.

Some wrasses eat Bergia so I have not seen much of them.

 

[jrshew]

Came home yesterday to see this little guy growing out of nowhere! Went and bought some Aiptasia-x seems to work, but I heard that they come back after a while. Any other way I can get rid of the permanently?

It worked great for me. Two or three cycles got it all.

 

[Dana Riddle]

I haven't waded through all 4 pages of this thread. But here are my experiences. I cured live rock for months before adding to the DT. Even then, there were a few Aiptasia, so I added two Peppermint shrimp to the tank and in a month or so, the anemones were gone or so I thought. The Aiptasia reemerged and the original Peppermints were gone. So I added more shrimp, but these anemones were brutes and the shrimp didn't seem to be taking care of them. So I dropped reagent grade sodium hydroxide pellets on or near them (using a Tunze picker) and the local pH modulation dissolved/killed them.

 

[BOWHUNTER4250]

I as well have not read all the post nut enough of them ..... 100% cure guaranteed , you will need a fish trap afterwards but i have tried EVERYTHING mentioned and none of it worked for the long haul until i had a experienced reefer tell me to try a KLEINS BUTTERFLY .......... i had aptasia so big they ate my cleaner shrimp !!! I got one of these fish and within 2 weeks my tank ( DD300 ) was 85% clear by the 3rd week my tank was 100% clear of aptasia .... fish trap in , butterfly out as these are NOT REEF SAFE as they will nip and pick at sticks , GSP , and others BUT im free and clear of this pest .... any i should happen to see now pop up you can put Kalk. paste on them and gone

 

[54Dutchman]

Peppermint shrimp have worked extremely well for me. Three shrimp eliminated at least 20 aiptasia in about a week.

Peppermint shrimp have worked for me; put five of them in my 90 gallon about two months ago. Have not seen any aiptasia for the last month. Had one large aiptasia that lasted about a month after adding the shrimp.

 

[The guppy guru]

Yes I used a molly fish and aptaisia x combo to get rid of my aptaisia.