Dealing with Aiptasia

[bam123]

F aptasia: forms hard coat and kills well. If it forms on or touching coral it will kill that area much more then other kalkwasser..
Aptasia X: does not form hard coat. Kills pretty good. Will not harm other corals as much.
I use F aptasia for deep holes and crevices. I use aptasia x when the little ****ers are in my zoas.
Hope that helps.

 

[Uncle99]

What would you recommend I see the tiny once not to big I got a peppermint shrimp 5 of them should I get a Aiptasia also

I recommend 1 small peppermint shrimp ( just one) and keep hitting them day in and day out with Apastia-x
If your persistent, you will win........peps unusually clear the smaller ones in tough to get areas.

Note: in rare cases, I have heard of peps taking a liking to Acans and some may bother nems.

Mine has never bothered anyone, but seem only to last a couple of years or so.

 

[hyeclass]

I recommend 1 small peppermint shrimp ( just one) and keep hitting them day in and day out with Apastia-x
If your persistent, you will win........peps unusually clear the smaller ones in tough to get areas.

Note: in rare cases, I have heard of peps taking a liking to Acans and some may bother nems.

Mine has never bothered anyone, but seem only to last a couple of years or so.

Bought 5 peppermint shrimp I try killing the big once with lemon juice and ph upper it works unfortunately I cannot see behind the rocks I am hoping shrimp will kill them


This is so crazy this tank and my damm luck not knowing much before

Killed 5000 fish with velvet now I got new fish after waiting 2 months put the fish from the qt to display couple of weeks later I notice tank has ick now everyone back to qt

 

[Whispers]

Copper band did it for me

 

[Jcr's Reef]

I use to just inject white vinegar (with needle) into the mouth. Very cheap method. If you have a ton of them and you plan to use vinegar keep an eye on your Ph level.

 

[Angelwolf21203]

I have a crapload of aiptasia in my overflow and my sump. I can't get into the overflow because of my plumbing. So from the sounds of it, some pepermint shrimp are my best bet for the overflow box and down in my sump. Right?

 

[Russell Casey]

try F-aptasia, it sticks for like 2-3 days unlike Aiptasia which blows away immediately.

I used F-Aiptasia and all it did was tick off the Aiptasia. I went from one or two of the stupid things to just last week killing 17 of them and noticing on my dang heater cord there were four babies. I have ordered nudibranches.

 

[Russell Casey]

I recommend 1 small peppermint shrimp ( just one) and keep hitting them day in and day out with Apastia-x
If your persistent, you will win........peps unusually clear the smaller ones in tough to get areas.

Note: in rare cases, I have heard of peps taking a liking to Acans and some may bother nems.

Mine has never bothered anyone, but seem only to last a couple of years or so.

The problem you have is many of the Aiptasia are in overflows. I didn't think there would be any in mine in my war on Aiptasia and I counted and I am not kidding are you ready? 42 of them and one was so big I couldn't kill it with liquid as the 4ml syringe gave out. That is how big it was. I took off the overflow, took it outside and did some serious murdering like you have never seen. I am at whits end. All because they came in on a rock I received. I quarentined the rock but didn't notice the aiptasia as it had lots of holes the rock. First day in the tank big head aiptasia loving life.

 

[Russell Casey]

I have a crapload of aiptasia in my overflow and my sump. I can't get into the overflow because of my plumbing. So from the sounds of it, some pepermint shrimp are my best bet for the overflow box and down in my sump. Right?

Not an issue, want some advice that worked for me? I shut off pump let water fully go into sump, so overflow was empty. Shut off valve so water couldn't drain. I filled up the overflow with regular tap water and had it boiling. I put it in. I added one bottle of vinegar and when I tell you the aiptasia started exploding I am not kidding. I made sure to keep water level below overflow and surface skimmer as I didn't want them back in my tank. I gave it four hours and did it again. I know overkill. I emptied with a siphon the overflow. I cleaned it out with ro water. I filled the overflow up two times and siphoned again. To get the chunks out. It has now been two months there isn't one aiptasia in my overflow. The jerks are dead.

 

[S.Pepper]

Nice reading, still deciding on which method i am going to use. I have 10 corals: 3 branch hammers, 1 torch, 3 ricordea mushrooms, and 3 zoas. The tank(s) has been running since Oct. '19--just upgraded to a larger tank and moved the live rock over to the new tank. I hadn't notice any aiptasia until the upgrade and haven't introduced any new coral since upgrade. No fish and won't have for another 2 months--I'll probably be lucky if that happens based on current conditions.

Deciding on how i want to combat this problem. I've seen 3 aiptasia so far and i'm sure there is probably more. Considering getting a file fish, but they can be a problem with your coral and according to what i've read, there's no guarantee they'll take a liking to aiptasia. Maybe a peppermint shrimp and a file fish? I'd rather not use a chemical eradication method, but may not have a choice. Any thoughts?

 

[S.Pepper]

Felt like i needed to do something quickly before it got out of hand. Decided to get a captive bred aiptasia eating file fish and a peppermint shrimp for a relatively cheap price from Algae Barn. We'll see how it works and go from there.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

I have had many of both and it’s hit or miss. Let me tell you one thing tho it’s 100% that aptaisia x will not harm,eat ,pick at, tear and rip food from your most expensive corals mouth and damage them,nip at your acans or any o her thing that I have personally experienced from both peppermint shrimp and filefish. I will not allow either of them back in my tanks after many many tries. Yes some have luck with them but I venture to say it’s probably 20% success where as aptaisia x is 100% eradication of the ones you can see at least with no negative effects at all that you can be sure of....I literally just traded my last filel fish a month ago after having him for six months not eating any aptasia just picking at my acans ate every one of my nasarius snails bit their noses off as they stick up out of the sand went around the tank and ate all the snails harass them then I caught him eating at my Dunkin and that’s like the third one I’ve had doing the same thing

 

[S.Pepper]

I have had many of both and it’s hit or miss. Let me tell you one thing tho it’s 100% that aptaisia x will not harm,eat ,pick at, tear and rip food from your most expensive corals mouth and damage them,nip at your acans or any o her thing that I have personally experienced from both peppermint shrimp and filefish. I will not allow either of them back in my tanks after many many tries. Yes some have luck with them but I venture to say it’s probably 20% success where as aptaisia x is 100% eradication of the ones you can see at least with no negative effects at all that you can be sure of....I literally just traded my last filel fish a month ago after having him for six months not eating any aptasia just picking at my acans ate every one of my nasarius snails bit their noses off as they stick up out of the sand went around the tank and ate all the snails harass them then I caught him eating at my Dunkin and that’s like the third one I’ve had doing the same thing

I'll see how it goes. I'm not concerned about my cuc. If the file or shrimp mess with my hammers or torches, I'll be having fish and shrimp for dinner. ;) And after dinner, I'll order some ap-X. thanks for your comment.

 

[Angelwolf21203]

Not an issue, want some advice that worked for me? I shut off pump let water fully go into sump, so overflow was empty. Shut off valve so water couldn't drain. I filled up the overflow with regular tap water and had it boiling. I put it in. I added one bottle of vinegar and when I tell you the aiptasia started exploding I am not kidding. I made sure to keep water level below overflow and surface skimmer as I didn't want them back in my tank. I gave it four hours and did it again. I know overkill. I emptied with a siphon the overflow. I cleaned it out with ro water. I filled the overflow up two times and siphoned again. To get the chunks out. It has now been two months there isn't one aiptasia in my overflow. The ******** are dead.

So here is my overflow. They seem to be contained in there and the sump. Sadly, I know how I got them. They were on a rock of zoas that I bought and I should have gotten rid of them right off that rock. But I know there are none in my display, at least! So as you can see, my overflow is really not very accessible due to the pipes. So im thinking that if I drop a pepermint shrimp in there he can clean things up in there. Probably be pretty happy to live in there, too! :-) And i could pop a couple of them down in my sump to clean things up down there, too.

 

[((FORDTECH))]

He won’t stay in the over flow very long

 

[Angelwolf21203]

Even with a smorgasbord?

 

[((FORDTECH))]

They are very curious and will get sucked down the over flow pipe to sump. Then you will just have to put him back. I’ve done it to many time lol

 

[Angelwolf21203]

They are very curious and will get sucked down the over flow pipe to sump. Then you will just have to put him back. I’ve done it to many time lol

I can handle that! He can clean the plumbing, too! LOL!

 

[Russell Casey]

Kleini butterfly. . . $30 and peaceful, eat aptasia like candy, eats all foods fed to tank and does not bother coral. I have 3 tanks and one in each tank for a reason

Hi I understand that butterfly fish are extremely tough to keep long-term?

 

[Russell Casey]

So here is my overflow. They seem to be contained in there and the sump. Sadly, I know how I got them. They were on a rock of zoas that I bought and I should have gotten rid of them right off that rock. But I know there are none in my display, at least! So as you can see, my overflow is really not very accessible due to the pipes. So im thinking that if I drop a pepermint shrimp in there he can clean things up in there. Probably be pretty happy to live in there, too! :) And i could pop a couple of them down in my sump to clean things up down there, too.

I like to suggest a different approach....get two berghia nudibranches and put them in there. To me in my experience of going through Aiptasia hell....was they were in the overflow first, and I didn't care. I let it go and go and one was on the glass of tank and it was murdered by myself. Next thing you know there were 20, kill them more coming.

My point is yes now they are in the overflow and happy. They reproduce by sending the fluid if you will out in the water column which means babies are made...some of them babies will reach your tank before they find a spot to park :(. You could do a peppermint shrimp they have been hit and miss in my view. They will eat everything but aiptasia that goes through overflow and aiptasia if super hungry. Begheria will reproduce and it will take from what I can see here about a month to get rid of.

Don't beat yourself up regarding the zoa you took in. I got aiptasia from some ulva I got. I went through it by hand and found two, but not all. About two weeks later they started appearing. I now have a cheaper kessil light and a 20 gallon tank that is only for quarantining. I will never get aiptasia again.....

The peppermint shrimp won't stay in the overflow in my experience.