Is an aiptasia free tank just a dream?

[Real McCoy]

Berghia in a pack did the job for me. But I did see one that missed the pack by a rock flower anemone. Time to do some chemical warfare. I just hope they don't split into more.

 

[Bruce Burnett]

I don't have any now but I have had hundreds over the life of my tank. They just eventually disappeared on their own.

I use to have lots of aiptasia. Put in a couple molly miller blennies. Don't know if they helped but my tank is free of aiptasia.

 

[La Mer]

Hi everybody,
I’m very frustrated, one year ago I moved from my 45G tank to a 75G new tank. In my old one a fought a lot with aiptasia and I managed to control it. Moving at the new one I decided I wanted it to be aiptasia free:
- I bought new sand, new rocks,
- I moved only the corals that had no sign of infestation
- all the corals I bough for the new tank were carefully inspected and dipped before entering the new tank

l do not know how, but after six months the first aiptasia popped out and now the tank is infested. I need to start again with shrimps, filefish, aiptasia x, etc etc.

Now I wonder if an aiptasia free tank is just a dream….if you want be in this hobby you have to Iive with this pest, end of the story.

Waiting for your view…thanks

I had a 30 gallon quarantine/observation tank set up while setting up and cycling my 180 gallon display. The 30 g became overrun with aiptasia that then found its way into my 180 g display when I began stocking it.

Peppermint shrimp from AlgaeBarn were the answer for me. Six added to the 30 gallon and aiptasia disappeared in a couple of weeks. Nine added to my 180 gallon has resulted with currently no aiptasia. I have LPS and SPS in the display with no visible negative from the peppermint shrimp residing.

 

[NaCl addict]

Hi everybody,
I’m very frustrated, one year ago I moved from my 45G tank to a 75G new tank. In my old one a fought a lot with aiptasia and I managed to control it. Moving at the new one I decided I wanted it to be aiptasia free:
- I bought new sand, new rocks,
- I moved only the corals that had no sign of infestation
- all the corals I bough for the new tank were carefully inspected and dipped before entering the new tank

l do not know how, but after six months the first aiptasia popped out and now the tank is infested. I need to start again with shrimps, filefish, aiptasia x, etc etc.

Now I wonder if an aiptasia free tank is just a dream….if you want be in this hobby you have to Iive with this pest, end of the story.

Waiting for your view…thanks

No, I had aptasia once and got rid of it in a snap.

 

[NaCl addict]

None of the pastes and or “juices” worked for me. Honestly it seemed like I was feeding the aptasia more than killing them. Berghia are THE way to go in my experience. Bought 15 of them them for a 90gal back in 2012 and they tore through HUNDREDS, at minimum, of aptasia in a few months. Bought 25 of them, 1/4” size, on Oct 31 this year, for my new 90 (about a year old) and they have all but eliminated what appeared to be maybe 75 ish, aptasia (which, in my mind, is at least 150 due to the unseen) and some of them were very large aptasia including in high flow acro areas. I have a cryptic six line as well as a Mckoskers flasher wrasse And the berghia bred and the eggs hatched and I have originals as well as little babies sifting around, at night, for more aptasia! Such cute lil things. In the next week I’ll likely have to be rehoming them to my sons tank, because I’m certain they are running low on sustenance. My last batch came from salty underground; 25 1/4” berghia and many had mated and left egg spirals in the cups that they arrived in, so I sunk the cups into the tank and left them until the eggs had all disappeared. I’ll spend that couple hundred, on Berghia, yearly, if need be. Absolutely worth it to avoid the stupid chemicals that didn’t work.

Aptasia

None of the pastes and or “juices” worked for me. Honestly it seemed like I was feeding the aptasia more than killing them. Berghia are THE way to go in my experience. Bought 15 of them them for a 90gal back in 2012 and they tore through HUNDREDS, at minimum, of aptasia in a few months. Bought 25 of them, 1/4” size, on Oct 31 this year, for my new 90 (about a year old) and they have all but eliminated what appeared to be maybe 75 ish, aptasia (which, in my mind, is at least 150 due to the unseen) and some of them were very large aptasia including in high flow acro areas. I have a cryptic six line as well as a Mckoskers flasher wrasse And the berghia bred and the eggs hatched and I have originals as well as little babies sifting around, at night, for more aptasia! Such cute lil things. In the next week I’ll likely have to be rehoming them to my sons tank, because I’m certain they are running low on sustenance. My last batch came from salty underground; 25 1/4” berghia and many had mated and left egg spirals in the cups that they arrived in, so I sunk the cups into the tank and left them until the eggs had all disappeared. I’ll spend that couple hundred, on Berghia, yearly, if need be. Absolutely worth it to avoid the stupid chemicals that didn’t work.

Aptasia X

 

[NaCl addict]

I've been battling aiptasia for years... UNTIL i got an Australian Stripey.... he was small and didn't do much for the first couple of months but now... poof, all aiptasia gone and the fish is a hearty good citizen that doesn't touch softies, LPS or SPS. Highly recommended and much easier to take care of than a copperband

I think I have a new niche. I can get rid of them.

 

[La Mer]

I think I have a new niche. I can get rid of them.

But what size tank are you talking about dosing with aiptasia X. If you have a large tank with elaborate by design aquascaping is dosing with that little needle really practical? I didn't find it to be.

 

[La Mer]

I think I have a new niche. I can get rid of them.

I found I needed snorkel gear to dose all of the aiptasia in a 180 g with aiptasia X.

 

[La Mer]

I found I needed snorkel gear to dose all of the aiptasia in a 180 g with aiptasia X.

But I have to admit I have two marine bettas who absolutely love love loved the berghia I spent money on.

 

[Idech]

Since adding my filefish I haven’t seen a single aiptasia. I will never be without one.

 

[La Mer]

Since adding my filefish I haven’t seen a single aiptasia. I will never be without one.

Why not try a filefish and some peppermint shrimp from AlgaeBarn? And no I do not have any ties to AlgaeBarn.

 

[Peace River]

Mine is a model citizen

My Aiptasia are model citizens!

 

[Reefer Matt]

A straggler may appear from time to time, but I get rid of Aiptasia on sight. All five of my tanks are currently free of them that I can see.

 

[stE25wy14]

what coral do u have? that could help gauge what you could get to remove aiptasia

 

[Formulator]

I somehow made it about 6 years before I got my first one. Now they are just an unfortunate reality of my system. Nudibranch and peppermint shrimp keep them minimal at least, but they are never completely gone.

 

[Rosemary63]

Hi everybody,
I’m very frustrated, one year ago I moved from my 45G tank to a 75G new tank. In my old one a fought a lot with aiptasia and I managed to control it. Moving at the new one I decided I wanted it to be aiptasia free:
- I bought new sand, new rocks,
- I moved only the corals that had no sign of infestation
- all the corals I bough for the new tank were carefully inspected and dipped before entering the new tank

l do not know how, but after six months the first aiptasia popped out and now the tank is infested. I need to start again with shrimps, filefish, aiptasia x, etc etc.

Now I wonder if an aiptasia free tank is just a dream….if you want be in this hobby you have to Iive with this pest, end of the story.

Waiting for your view…thanks

I have been blessed with a very hearty Copperband Butterfly Fish....he eradicated what I had and have not seen any in over three years! He has easily become my favorite fish, beautiful and a hard worker!!

 

[Llebcire]

I'm currently going after the dream

Started my first reef tank in 2003 and have had numerous builds and sizes (currently starting a small biocube) and like others I've always ended up with aiptasia.

Starting this with sterile rock and sand, will add coralline and critters from containers as I'm not seeding with any live rock.

Corals will be a concern and I plan on refragging before transferring to my tank. I will likely still end up with them . Someone (knowledgeable) at a LFS was telling me research is showing that the spores can exist in food and aren't destroyed in processing - if that's true then there's no way to prevent infestation eventually.

 

[Billyreef-ita]

Yes I guess this is the hard truth, you end up with having them no matter what you do. You only need to find the best way to manage it.

What I would not do again if I was to enter in a new build, is to give away certain corals because they had some signs of Aiptasia, even small and cured.
They were nice zoanthus that I could have kept in the tank. The final result is that I still have Aiptasia but I do not have zoanthus anymore, and I liked them very much

 

[GSPClown94]

spores

Aiptasia producing spores sounds totally inaccurate.

 

[Rocky Mountain Reef]

Hi everybody,
I’m very frustrated, one year ago I moved from my 45G tank to a 75G new tank. In my old one a fought a lot with aiptasia and I managed to control it. Moving at the new one I decided I wanted it to be aiptasia free:
- I bought new sand, new rocks,
- I moved only the corals that had no sign of infestation
- all the corals I bough for the new tank were carefully inspected and dipped before entering the new tank

l do not know how, but after six months the first aiptasia popped out and now the tank is infested. I need to start again with shrimps, filefish, aiptasia x, etc etc.

Now I wonder if an aiptasia free tank is just a dream….if you want be in this hobby you have to Iive with this pest, end of the story.

Waiting for your view…thanks

I was utterly infest as well, every square inch of rock, sand, back, etc. was covered. Berghia Nudi's introduces and after about 3 months, they exploded and utterly eradicated every single aiptasia. It's honestly the only way, as I tried everything you can think of, from filefish to Kleini butterflies to copper band....you'll have to take the wrasse out and let nature and those wonderful little slugs do their magic.