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- Jan 18, 2019
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Haven't been on the boards much this year with all of the adulting things taking priority but I need some opinions here because I'm on the verge of losing my display tank.
About six months ago I purchased a lobo from an online vendor (I'm not going to name names here, that isn't the goal of this thread) that was not exactly true to the picture of the coral. When it arrived, half of it was covered in bubble algae on the part of the coral that had died had a receding skeleton showing. There were also numerous pests that showed up in the bowl after it was dipped, flatworms, astarina's and all other manor of things that I did not want to introduce into my tank. Against my better judgement, hoping that I could bring that beautiful coral back to a healthy state, I put it into the display after scrubbing the base and manually removing any other undesirable hitchhiker I could find. Fast forward six months, my tank now has bubble algae issues but the worst part..... aiptasia has completely taken over every square inch of the entire tank.
It's on the power heads, the return nozzles, its growing on the sand, every little crevice of every rock is just completely covered in aiptasia and it is choking the life out of every single coral it touches. When i first saw it pop up, I tried super gluing over them, bought a majano wand, injected them with kalk past, anything I could do to smother one out as soon as i noticed it. That worked for a short time but over the last month, the ones that I couldn't see or couldn't get to have just exploded into the state it is now.
The first thing I tried was of course berghia. Spent $300 on 20 full sized adult nudis. Made sure to transfer each one into the crevice of my zoanthid garden rock because that was where the aiptasia was doing the most immediate damage. After i put them in the first day, I never saw a single one again and the aiptasia continued to pop up everywhere. Figuring that maybe the zoanthid garden was too close to the power heads and maybe the nudis didn't survive the flow, I again purchased another batch of adult nudis and spread them out this time, a few in deep crevices on each of the rock structures in all different parts of the tank. I watched every night for a week. For the first couple of nights, I'd see one here or there but within a week, again they were never to be seen again. My own guess is that maybe the coris wrasse is picking them off but I've watched the tank and even put a camera on it following the latest addition of berghia and I've never seen him try to pick one off, even when they are out in the open.
After wasting $600 on what I thought was the best option to try first, I purchased 5 peppermint shrimp. When they arrived, they were a lot smaller then I was expecting and I watched them get picked off one by one by either the wrasses or tangs as soon as they popped their head out of the rocks. It was like I just dumped some frozen mysis in, they went straight for them and that was that.
My next effort was to locate a source of bigger peppermint shrimp. This time I ordered 20 of the suckers and made sure they were all full sized adult shrimp. I put them all in the display at the same time and the entire batch of them immediately swam to the zoa garden and set up shop. They had the entire two clusters of rocks completely clear of aiptasia within three days. The kicker here though, they haven't ventured off of those two rock clusters on the right side of the tank for two months. They are happy to just hang out there and eat whatever they pick off when I feed the tank and will not under any circumstance, go after any of the other aiptasia in the tank. I even tried to make them uncomfortable there by putting a flash light shining on those rocks at night in hopes they would want to hide from the light and seek shelter in another part of the tank but they don't. They just huddle together in the zoa's themselves and hide. I've bottled trapped some and move them to other rocks, they always end up right back in a group in the same spot.
My most recent and final attempt was the addition of a file fish from biota. After getting harassed by the angel and tangs for two weeks, he finally had enough courage to venture out and join the population. That was about two months ago and I haven't seen him even look at a single aiptasia much less try to nip at one. He is also happy to just eat whatever I feed the tank and nothing else. Doesn't nip at corals either, just swims around, hangs out under my scraper occasionally and that is it.
So my question for you guys is, where do I go from here? I have a considerable amount of money in my display tank right now and I am about to lose the entire thing to this aiptasia explosion. I feel defeated and I don't know what to do. The only thing I can think of is to set up a second tank, salvage any coral I can frag or remove without damage and nuke the display. I really don't have the time or energy for something like that though. What would you guys do in this situation? Any advice would be appreciated because i'm at a loss on this one.
About six months ago I purchased a lobo from an online vendor (I'm not going to name names here, that isn't the goal of this thread) that was not exactly true to the picture of the coral. When it arrived, half of it was covered in bubble algae on the part of the coral that had died had a receding skeleton showing. There were also numerous pests that showed up in the bowl after it was dipped, flatworms, astarina's and all other manor of things that I did not want to introduce into my tank. Against my better judgement, hoping that I could bring that beautiful coral back to a healthy state, I put it into the display after scrubbing the base and manually removing any other undesirable hitchhiker I could find. Fast forward six months, my tank now has bubble algae issues but the worst part..... aiptasia has completely taken over every square inch of the entire tank.
It's on the power heads, the return nozzles, its growing on the sand, every little crevice of every rock is just completely covered in aiptasia and it is choking the life out of every single coral it touches. When i first saw it pop up, I tried super gluing over them, bought a majano wand, injected them with kalk past, anything I could do to smother one out as soon as i noticed it. That worked for a short time but over the last month, the ones that I couldn't see or couldn't get to have just exploded into the state it is now.
The first thing I tried was of course berghia. Spent $300 on 20 full sized adult nudis. Made sure to transfer each one into the crevice of my zoanthid garden rock because that was where the aiptasia was doing the most immediate damage. After i put them in the first day, I never saw a single one again and the aiptasia continued to pop up everywhere. Figuring that maybe the zoanthid garden was too close to the power heads and maybe the nudis didn't survive the flow, I again purchased another batch of adult nudis and spread them out this time, a few in deep crevices on each of the rock structures in all different parts of the tank. I watched every night for a week. For the first couple of nights, I'd see one here or there but within a week, again they were never to be seen again. My own guess is that maybe the coris wrasse is picking them off but I've watched the tank and even put a camera on it following the latest addition of berghia and I've never seen him try to pick one off, even when they are out in the open.
After wasting $600 on what I thought was the best option to try first, I purchased 5 peppermint shrimp. When they arrived, they were a lot smaller then I was expecting and I watched them get picked off one by one by either the wrasses or tangs as soon as they popped their head out of the rocks. It was like I just dumped some frozen mysis in, they went straight for them and that was that.
My next effort was to locate a source of bigger peppermint shrimp. This time I ordered 20 of the suckers and made sure they were all full sized adult shrimp. I put them all in the display at the same time and the entire batch of them immediately swam to the zoa garden and set up shop. They had the entire two clusters of rocks completely clear of aiptasia within three days. The kicker here though, they haven't ventured off of those two rock clusters on the right side of the tank for two months. They are happy to just hang out there and eat whatever they pick off when I feed the tank and will not under any circumstance, go after any of the other aiptasia in the tank. I even tried to make them uncomfortable there by putting a flash light shining on those rocks at night in hopes they would want to hide from the light and seek shelter in another part of the tank but they don't. They just huddle together in the zoa's themselves and hide. I've bottled trapped some and move them to other rocks, they always end up right back in a group in the same spot.
My most recent and final attempt was the addition of a file fish from biota. After getting harassed by the angel and tangs for two weeks, he finally had enough courage to venture out and join the population. That was about two months ago and I haven't seen him even look at a single aiptasia much less try to nip at one. He is also happy to just eat whatever I feed the tank and nothing else. Doesn't nip at corals either, just swims around, hangs out under my scraper occasionally and that is it.
So my question for you guys is, where do I go from here? I have a considerable amount of money in my display tank right now and I am about to lose the entire thing to this aiptasia explosion. I feel defeated and I don't know what to do. The only thing I can think of is to set up a second tank, salvage any coral I can frag or remove without damage and nuke the display. I really don't have the time or energy for something like that though. What would you guys do in this situation? Any advice would be appreciated because i'm at a loss on this one.
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