Best Aptasia Options

[Bruttall]

File fish eat acans as often as aptisia seems to me..I use peppermint shrimp.

 

[dkelley]

Pardon the spots on the glass.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ok all, I've got my CBB. I picked it up last night. The CBB is in my QT tank at the moment to make sure it is eating and ready to compete for food in the display. The store said it was eating mysis shrimp so I bought the same brand. They did try and show me but a crowd ensued and the copper band hid in a corner before they even put any in the tank. Before the crowd I was just kneeling in front of the tank and watching it swim around and peck at rocks and such it didn't seem scared until multiple people come about. I know pecking at rocks does not equal "eating" so I was still concerned.

It didn't eat for me last night which wasn't a surprise. I did feed it a good mix this morning and it wasn't interested. This was LRS, blood worms, and some of the mysis. Next feeding I'll just try the mysis they were using. I also dropped a half clam in there from the bagged fish store type. I might need to hit the supermarket for fresher stuff today if the CBB doesn't touch the clam.

I did put a few cycled rocks in the tank that I know house a little aptasia so hopefully he sees that and grabs it. Fingers crossed I get this guy eating. I can grab clams or muscles from the store and I'm thinking of ordering mastic if I need to. Amazon can get it here tomorrow.

can take CNN as much as three days to kick in with feeding as they seem more interested in surroundings up front. Mine and previous one ate day one but not typical.

 

[dkelley]

can take CNN as much as three days to kick in with feeding as they seem more interested in surroundings up front. Mine and previous one ate day one but not typical.

Good to know. Do you think I should have mastic on hand or is that a waste of money and I should worry less?

I know this LFS received these CBB's last Wednesday. I saw them all last Thursday before deciding to get one. This was the last one left at the store out of the three. Fingers crossed I get lucky. It doesn't look to skinny or unhealthy but it isn't plump either. Lots of changes in its life recently so it's understandable. I am in no rush to move this guy out.

I have a Pavo Damsel from Biota coming a week from Thursday that will have a separate tank until this one gets into the display. I don't need a damsel bullying this guy when it makes the move, the sailfin will be a pain already I think. That damsel is the final fish in my initial tank stocking.

 

[reeftivo]

just stressed a little (common). once it gets acclimated it will start searching for food. initially when i first had mine i would drop food , then move away from the tank (peak around the corner LOL). not sure if that helped but i soon noticed they started picking at the food in the water column.

 

[reeftivo]

Good to know. Do you think I should have mastic on hand or is that a waste of money and I should worry less?

I know this LFS received these CBB's last Wednesday. I saw them all last Thursday before deciding to get one. This was the last one left at the store out of the three. Fingers crossed I get lucky. It doesn't look to skinny or unhealthy but it isn't plump either. Lots of changes in its life recently so it's understandable. I am in no rush to move this guy out.

I have a Pavo Damsel from Biota coming a week from Thursday that will have a separate tank until this one gets into the display. I don't need a damsel bullying this guy when it makes the move, the sailfin will be a pain already I think. That damsel is the final fish in my initial tank stocking.

mine do not like mastic. they like to hunt

 

[EugeneVan]

My Sailfin is one mean fish. Always picking on the foxface. The angel picks on the fox face as well but it's not nearly as bad. Maybe the fox face is just a wuss. We named the fish Megan, Megan Foxface.

I think this is the nature of foxface. Mine is very peaceful too until the power blue and brown tangs try to bully him for the first time. He extend the venomous dorsal spines and give the tangs a lesson. From then on, they live very peacefully.

 

[ClownBaby]

If you can find an Australian Stripey, mine absolutely decimated the aiptasia that took over my tank, almost gave up on all the rock when I transfered from 50 to 100 gallon recently but he saved everything, doesn't touch coral or even my rock flower anemones.

Very active and eats everything, mine got fat very quickly. Peaceful but he does get bullied a bit by my angels and tangs. He seems to have become the leader of my 4 chromis which is entertaining.

I tried butterflyfish (racoons) which worked for a bit but my tangs always ended up killing them, and they would munch on coral and rfa's.

Highly recommend the stripey.

 

[noelskii]

Do you have a full tank shot?

 

[dkelley]

Do you have a full tank shot?

 

[noelskii]

I’d remove those rocks and chisel them out. Looks like you just started… or get all new dry rock

 

[dkelley]

I’d remove those rocks and chisel them out. Looks like you just started… or get all new dry rock

No reason given to remove the rocks? Those rocks are cycled, been in my sump for the last four months so they house the nitrifying bacteria as well so there is a benefit. I don't understand why removing them should matter in this case other than creating more water changes for me. .

 

[dkelley]

I also found an LFS that's a bit of a drive but they sell live black worms so I'm going to pick those up this evening to feed as well.

 

[noelskii]

No reason given to remove the rocks? Those rocks are cycled, been in my sump for the last four months so they house the nitrifying bacteria as well so there is a benefit. I don't understand why removing them should matter in this case other than creating more water changes for me. .

Biggest reason would be to get rid of aiptasia… take them out one by one, chisel them out and then wash with fresh saltwater

 

[legionofdoon]

I'm currently using a Klein's and so far he's cleared every aptasia not protected by being in my clownfish clans territory. So far haven't noticed him touching zoa's or corals. I also tried berghias, peppermints and a silver scat with zero impact. Though the scat is an excellent herbivore. He does have blue in his head but you only see it in certain lighting.

 

[disaster999]

CBB is a hit or miss. I bought one years ago and it really went after the aptasia aggressively and pretty much eradicated them from my tank. It eventually died of starvation because it would only eat aptasia and nothing else. The aptasia eventually returned to my tank I guess because some managed to survive in my sump and the spores made its way to the main tank. At that point I started to get lazy/lost some interest in saltwater/reef tank keeping and did the bare minimum maintenance to the tank and left the aptasia alone. Some of the aptasia have grown into so big they are larger than a quarter coin. At that point my tank started to leak. I splurged and got a new waterbox tank, and that kind of sparked my interest reefing again. I hated how those gigantic aptasia looked in my tank and remembering how effective the CBB was before, I bought another one hoping it would once again eat them, but so far it hasn’t touch any of the aptasia AFAIK but has shown interest in the pellets I was feeding. Its only been a few days so I guess I will give it some time in acclimating in my tank and hopefully working up an aptasia appetite.

In the meantime, I found an old bottle of Aptasia X I have lying around so I decided to give my tank a helping hand and kill off as much as I could. The giant ones doesn’t seem to be phased by it, they did shrivel up and seems like they were spewing their guts, but after a day or 2 the base is still there and have signs of them bouncing back. The smaller ones pretty much melted right away with 1 application. Going to keep feeding them Aptasia X until eventually they die or I run out.

 

[Shevlin77]

I've tried everything. File fish proved to be 100% effective in the end. Petco gets aquacultured specimens at very fair prices.

This. It was a constant battle for many years, until I finally got a filefish. Been in there for 2 months and they are 75% gone already and he is super fun to watch.

 

[Roatan Reef]

F~Aiptasia