how would you solve aiptaisa in this tank?

lion king

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The nudis will be devoured by the wrasse's and IME the peppermint shrimp will bother the heck out of euphyllias. For years I've used aiptasia x with good results, but you will be using it for the rest of your life, you can never get them all, I know the aiptasia eating filefish will nip sps, but I'm not sure how they act with lps. If you do try a filefish, make sure to get a captive bred one, as the wild caught ones are frequently mis-identified. The filefish is a cool fish that looks cool and has an interesting personality.
 

Biokabe

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I've had very good results with a pyramid butterfly. Took forever to actually find one (about 3 months of looking, ended up costing me about $150), but since adding him to the tank I haven't seen a single aiptasia in the display. I know there's aiptasia present (there are a few down in the sump), but he keeps them out of the display. At least, I assume it's him; there are no other aiptasia predators in the tank.

Aiptasia filefish and berghia nudibranchs will both work, but they each have drawbacks. Filefish will eat pretty much any coral (the one I briefly owned was fond of zoas and LPS), and berghia usually don't achieve complete eradication before starving out.
 

fishmonkey

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so I am starting to have an outbreak on the dreaded aiptasia in my RS 650P...

tank is a LPS dominate system with wellos and Euphyillia and one tester SPS that is growing and doing ok. but i am more of a LPS guy..

my tank will be wrasse dom. but as of now i only have a yellow wrasse but have credit for 4 others.
i also have a flame hawk.


my options as i see the are:
1. berghia nudis...and hope for the best might work if I dont add anymore wrasses to the tank for a few months
2. peppermint shrimp 5-6 of the little buggers. and hope they dont go after my other corals ot the flame hawk dont eat them.
3.I am doing a tank transfer due to a seam that is starting to fail. so I will be taking the rock out while out I can hit them with a kalk past or vingar solution.
4. sale the LPS and a butterfly and turn the tankinto a FOWLR or SPS tank. I have always wanted a Fish only but 175 gal. tank IMHO is on the smaller side.

IDK I keep going back in forth here on the right solution. only if CBB where easy to get eating and did not eat your meat corals it would be a easy solution.

anyone have experience with molly miller blennies eating aiptasia? would they be compatible with Midas blennies?
what about Australian Stripey? some say there are reef safe others say there not?

also what about the pyramid butterfly do they eat it?
I put peppermint shrimp in my tank with a flame hawk and the peppermint shrimp ate all the aiptasia in 2 days. Within a month my two hammer corals and one of my flower pots died. I’ve had the peppermints for around 5 months and they don’t touch my candy cane or blasto or duncan.

If you go the peppermint route you will have to capture them after all the aiptasia is gone and remove them so they don’t kill your euphylias
 

Bpb

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You will never eradicate them entirely unless you start a fully new tank, which case you'll likely end up with them again. Very few people successfully keep their tanks fully aiptasia free long term. It's just something most people deal with, whether folks like to admit it or not. They were introduced to my present tank through coral obtained by the most popular coral vender on this forum, frequently advertised in video series by the most popular dry gear retailer. Wont name names but it rhymes with Borld Bide Borals. Buying from a reputable source isnt going to save you. Pause videos and carefully watch and youll see them in virtually every single aquaculturists footage. The bigger they are, the more likely they are to carry them. I've yet to see an LFS without them as well. It's just part of life. If you want peppermints or nudis to do the work, ditch the idea of having wrasses or hawkfish. If you want fish to do the work, ditch the idea of having any fleshy corals. Manual control helps as well. It'll be a compromise either way. Such is life.
 

fishmonkey

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You will never eradicate them entirely unless you start a fully new tank, which case you'll likely end up with them again. Very few people successfully keep their tanks fully aiptasia free long term. It's just something most people deal with, whether folks like to admit it or not. They were introduced to my present tank through coral obtained by the most popular coral vender on this forum, frequently advertised in video series by the most popular dry gear retailer. Wont name names but it rhymes with Borld Bide Borals. Buying from a reputable source isnt going to save you. Pause videos and carefully watch and youll see them in virtually every single aquaculturists footage. The bigger they are, the more likely they are to carry them. I've yet to see an LFS without them as well. It's just part of life. If you want peppermints or nudis to do the work, ditch the idea of having wrasses or hawkfish. If you want fish to do the work, ditch the idea of having any fleshy corals. Manual control helps as well. It'll be a compromise either way. Such is life.
I have a yellow coris wrasse and a flame hawk and they haven’t killed the peppermints. It’s been around 5 months. The peppermints did end up eating my hammers and flower pot though. The key to keeping the peppermint alive imo is hiding spots.
 

Bpb

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I have a yellow coris wrasse and a flame hawk and they haven’t killed the peppermints. It’s been around 5 months. The peppermints did end up eating my hammers and flower pot though.

You’re “fortunate” the hawk fish didn’t hunt them. They typically will. My foxface hasn’t touched a single coral in 7 years but I also realize that isn’t typical behavior of them. Either way. Things that eat aiptasia will either be eaten by other desirable organisms, or will eat other desirable organisms. Most often. Probably a safer way to put it
 

pecan2phat

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I would say it is more the norm that a Flame Hawk and Yellow Coris will make peppermints a tasty expensive snack so keep that in mind.
 

fishmonkey

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I would say it is more the norm that a Flame Hawk and Yellow Coris will make peppermints a tasty expensive snack so keep that in mind.
I guess I’m just lucky. The peppermints stay in their cave all day and come out at night and the flame hawk doesn’t really see them or bother them ever. My yellow coris wrasse is super peaceful but skittish. Too bad my hammers and flower pot died though. Can’t have your cake and eat it too
 

pecan2phat

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I once added 12 peppermints to my 180g at lights out and watched the following days at my Mystery wrasse and Orange Back wrasse pick off $96 worth of shrimp.
 

Bpb

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I once added 12 peppermints to my 180g at lights out and watched the following days at my Mystery wrasse and Orange Back wrasse pick off $96 worth of shrimp.

I actually have decided to forego wrasses in my current tank entirely in case I decide I need to go with berghia
 

pecan2phat

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Aiptasia was still waving at me and the wrasses were looking at a menu for their next course :frowning-face:
 

pecan2phat

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Before the peps, I also tried a Biota Aiptasia eating Filefish. Ordered straight from Biota, thought I would have a better chance.
Nope, Filefish did not touch Aiptasia for 18 months while in the tank.
 

Derrick0580

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I have a question regarding this situation. I found a few smaller aiptasia’s showing their little ugly faces lately so tonight I remembered we had some syringes with needles on them so I drew up some kalk water from the top of my kalk stirrer and injected the nems with it. Is the clear saturated water from the stirrer strong enough to kill them or should I go with some other liquid such as white vinegar or lemon juice?
 

pecan2phat

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You should make a slurry that can be siphoned up by the syringe. So not so thin but not so thick that makes the syringe useless.
 

ninjamyst

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Get a large enough container to hold one of your NSA rocks.

1. Move one of your rocks to container with tank water.
2. Add airstone and heater
3. Add 2-3 peppermint shrimps
4. Let them eat aiptasia over night or over 2 nights
5. Swap in another rock and repeat till all aiptasia are gone
6. Put peppermint in sump
 

Duncan62

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There may also be some that the shrimp can't see. You also want to check areas that get light but fish/shrimp can't reach. Sometimes they end up in overflows, return pump outlet, pumps, refugium, etc. And then it will look like they are gone but come right back.
My scrubber tray has them. I'm thinking about putting a shrimp there. I wish berghias were affordable.
 
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Devaji

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Get a large enough container to hold one of your NSA rocks.

1. Move one of your rocks to container with tank water.
2. Add airstone and heater
3. Add 2-3 peppermint shrimps
4. Let them eat aiptasia over night or over 2 nights
5. Swap in another rock and repeat till all aiptasia are gone
6. Put peppermint in sump
that's a good idea
 

Duncan62

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that's a good idea
All 4 of my overpopulated mixed reefs have peppermint shrimp in them and have had for years. I've never had a coral damaged. I don't remember tank size but on in a 30 will clean it up overnight. The rock in the bucket is a good idea but there's no control after the procedure is done. Put the shrimp in the display. You won't be sorry.
 

ninjamyst

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All 4 of my overpopulated mixed reefs have peppermint shrimp in them and have had for years. I've never had a coral damaged. I don't remember tank size but on in a 30 will clean it up overnight. The rock in the bucket is a good idea but there's no control after the procedure is done. Put the shrimp in the display. You won't be sorry.
Great for you but plenty of people have witnessed their peppermint shrimp eating their corals. So I guess it's up to the OP whether they want to take that chance. If it was my tank, nope.
 

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