My experience with Aiptasia as a severely visually impaired person so far.

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Ok, we all know that there is no magic spell we can cast Aiptasia out with. Before I lost most my vision I was able to keep Aiptasia at bay. Yeah, yeah, I know I’ll hear about how bad a reefer I am for even letting Aiptasia in my tank to begin with. I draw similarities to my motorcycle days. There are two types of motorcyclists, those that have gone down, and those that have yet to go down. I was vigilant about removing frag plugs, dipping, and checking every single frag before being placed in the display. Where did I go wrong you say. Well, it came time to start up the Refugium and I did a stupid…I got a nice plump ball of chaeto from my LFS. It looked clean and was loaded with brittle stars, so call me a dummy.

First was Aiptasia X, which for those of you that breed Berghia and complain about keeping enough Aiptasia on hand, this is the ticket. If you want Aiptasia to spread, this works great. I only had a couple Aiptasia and I thought this was working as those few disappeared for a few days. Well, they came back, and so did their offspring!

After that was Kalk paste, superglue and putty. This worked well for me. I knocked down most of them. Occasionally a few babies would appear. I got a few peppermint shrimp which, when placed in the tank with the pumps off, attacked those little vermin like crazy. Once the pumps were turned on (high flow bare bottom) the shrimp just hid under rock ledges. Never again to touch Aiptasia. Even with that, I was able to keep things in check manually.

I was hit with several medical issues all in a short time period. Way too much to talk about, but the short of it is that I lost most all of my functional vision and have motor control issues with action tremors (meaning no tremor at rest, but when I perform tasks like trying to write, the tremors kick in). So, with losing the ability to do most anything (driving, working, socializing, etc.) I became a hermit and locked myself at home (the pandemic didn’t help as getting treatment or getting into any help groups was practically impossible). I knew I was headed for disaster, so I got an Aiptasia eating filefish for good measure. Well, let’s just say that didn’t work out well at all. He seems to love to nip at Aiptasia and then spit them out causing them to take over the tank.

Once I started getting back into the swing (I still have a long way to go), I ordered a few medium sized Berghia (10 total, tank is 200g,160 display and 40g sump). I do have known Berghia predators which I isolated to one side of the tank using plastic eggcrate that is too small for any one to get through. I placed the berghia on the other side of the tank. Four months later, nothing and the Aiptasia got much worse. I ordered 25 more Berghia and lowered the flow in my tank thinking it was too much for them to handle. Another four months, nothing and the Aiptasia is even worse! So, yet again, another four months and I ordered 50 medium sized berghia. I placed 44 in the tank, still with all inhabitants on the other side of the divider, and 6 in a 1 gallon tetra tank with bubbler, filter and a few Aiptasia. Once there were a slew of egg spirals in the tetra tank I placed the three now much larger berghia in the display. It’s been a few weeks now. I’m waiting for the egg spirals to hatch. I have a ten gallon tank growing Aiptasia and change the water every so often on both the berghia and Aiptasia tanks. The display now has one small patch, I’m guessing 6”x6” with absolutely no Aiptasia! Finally, just a glimmer of hope! Well, that’s where I’m at today. Wish me luck. This is the last hobby I have left and I want to ride it out as long as possible. It has not been easy by any means. It doesn’t help that I haven’t found any other reefers in my area as I’m sure they would be very willing to lend a hand.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

It’s hard as a reef owner to keep pest under control when the advise you’ve been given (file fish, peppermint and aipX) doesn’t pan out. One of the most frustrating parts of the hobby is what works for someone may not work for you. With that said every tank is different so every tank is special. I’m glad you’ve stuck through your endeavors and held on to the hobby. It sure helps me pass the time on hard days.
Happy Reefing

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

It’s hard as a reef owner to keep pest under control when the advise you’ve been given (file fish, peppermint and aipX) doesn’t pan out. One of the most frustrating parts of the hobby is what works for someone may not work for you. With that said every tank is different so every tank is special. I’m glad you’ve stuck through your endeavors and held on to the hobby. It sure helps me pass the time on hard days.
Happy Reefing

Exactly, not everything works for everyone. The good new is that I can’t see the Aiptasia in my tank. Just knowing it’s there is haunting. As far as I can tell it hasn’t affected any corals. I can still see color so I know they are all alive and still growing.

 

[Miami Reef]

@eatbreakfast told me he had great success using H. zoster (pyramid butterfly fish) for aiptasia. They are reef safe but will pick at xenia.

I’m personally going to try one for my tank. Aiptasia is almost always inevitable. Even quarantining doesn’t guarantee being aiptasia free. Biological control is IMO the best way.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

@eatbreakfast told me he had great success using H. zoster (pyramid butterfly fish) for aiptasia. They are reef safe but will pick at xenia.

I’m personally going to try one for my tank. Aiptasia is almost always inevitable. Even quarantining doesn’t guarantee being aiptasia free. Biological control is IMO the best way.

I’ve heard about success with butterfly fish as well. Not being able to see well at all it’s just too risky for me to introduce a new fish into my system. The quarantine process just isn’t something I can handle as I wouldn’t be able to tell if the fish was sick. I did look at the Marine Collectors site and they have fully quarantined copperband butterfly’s for $600! They are eating frozen mysis, but they are also not reef safe or completely reef safe depending on who you talk too. They also do not have a high survival rate as they often stop eating, or eat perfectly fine and live forever depending on who you ask. So, that’s not off the table completely if the berghia don’t work this time, but it’s not optimal for sure!

 

[Double monti 61]

I have some in one of my small hang on back filters they were in my system and I began removing them by using super glue that worked for a while but some came back I then started using aptasia x and that also worked for a bit then a couple came back at that point I added a peppermint shrimp and the ones in the filter are the only ones that exist so I leave them alone and they have been in the filter for months and never show up in the system maybe that is why the shrimp is so healthy.

 

[TheDragonsReef]

Dont stress about it too much. If you keep up with the berghias they will for sure do the trick they worked wonders in my 75g tank. It took about 3 months to see a noticeable difference and by month 4 they were gone. However in my 265gallon with a bunch of wrasses and a copperband the berghias didnt seem to work. I tried a few times and i guess the population never took off. In that tank i tried filefish, copperband butterfly, peppermintshrimp, everything. I just cant beat them. And you know what i stopped trying. The filefish and copperband occasionally eat them but only when theyre very easily accessible. You cant tell but there are aiptasia in nearly every nook and cranny of this tank and im perfectly fine with it now. Ive learned to accept it lol

 

[Miami Reef]

Dont stress about it too much. If you keep up with the berghias they will for sure do the trick they worked wonders in my 75g tank. It took about 3 months to see a noticeable difference and by month 4 they were gone. However in my 265gallon with a bunch of wrasses and a copperband the berghias didnt seem to work. I tried a few times and i guess the population never took off. In that tank i tried filefish, copperband butterfly, peppermintshrimp, everything. I just cant beat them. And you know what i stopped trying. The filefish and copperband occasionally eat them but only when theyre very easily accessible. You cant tell but there are aiptasia in nearly every nook and cranny of this tank and im perfectly fine with it now. Ive learned to accept it lol

That tank is STUNNING!

 

[TheDragonsReef]

That tank is STUNNING!

Thank you!

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

So, a month into the last batch of 50 medium Berghia no one has noticed much more improvement from the initial 6”x6” patch they mowed down. I’m hoping they just aren’t concentrated in one area anymore and are attacking in different places. Two were found on the backs of a couple tuxedo urchins. We tried to gently blow them out with a baster but I guess they just blew apart.

Other news is that I think the berghia eggs hatched in the 1 gallon tetra tank. I was told there’s a ton of little white dots jumping around in there. They said they are pretty fast though, which confuses me as I never thought of Berghia as fast. We’ll see how that goes. There’s several small Aiptasia in there and I have some growing in a separate 10 gallon tank to feed them.

 

[Jedi1199]

Dont stress about it too much. If you keep up with the berghias they will for sure do the trick they worked wonders in my 75g tank. It took about 3 months to see a noticeable difference and by month 4 they were gone. However in my 265gallon with a bunch of wrasses and a copperband the berghias didnt seem to work. I tried a few times and i guess the population never took off. In that tank i tried filefish, copperband butterfly, peppermintshrimp, everything. I just cant beat them. And you know what i stopped trying. The filefish and copperband occasionally eat them but only when theyre very easily accessible. You cant tell but there are aiptasia in nearly every nook and cranny of this tank and im perfectly fine with it now. Ive learned to accept it lol

I have had Aiptasia in my 55g for a while now. I am in the same mindset here, Just leave them alone. I can only see 1 in my tank at the moment, but where there is one, his friends are there too. I have a few peppermint shrimp in the tank, (I think) I never see them so they may be gone lol.

I think overall they are not much of an issue. I will continue to employ natural predators to combat the issue until I see that the problem starts to get out of hand. Not sure I want a tank filled with these guys, but one or 2 here and there don't bother me.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

I have had Aiptasia in my 55g for a while now. I am in the same mindset here, Just leave them alone. I can only see 1 in my tank at the moment, but where there is one, his friends are there too. I have a few peppermint shrimp in the tank, (I think) I never see them so they may be gone lol.

I think overall they are not much of an issue. I will continue to employ natural predators to combat the issue until I see that the problem starts to get out of hand. Not sure I want a tank filled with these guys, but one or 2 here and there don't bother me.

I hear ya there. I wish I was only dealing with one or two. I’m told they are everywhere. They are covering every inch of rock except where coral is growing. There must be at least a thousand! Ugh.

 

[Jedi1199]

I hear ya there. I wish I was only dealing with one or two. I’m told they are everywhere. They are covering every inch of rock except where coral is growing. There must be at least a thousand! Ugh.

Wow!! I fear that your issue is above my paygrade my friend... I honestly have no idea how to advise you on this one. Dynamite maybe? lol jk..

 

[BanjoBandito]

Hahaha your tank is absolutely boss! I would love to help you, where are you located? I could steal frags and YOU’D NEVER KNOW! Just kidding!

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

So today I guess there are several tiny Berghia slowly moving around in the tetra tank. Still with a ton of the little larvae that are swimming and running around. It sounds like there are a lot, like hundreds, of these little things. There’s no way I’ll be able to feed all these little guys after the morph into berghia outside the display. I think I’ll try to keep several in the tetra tank, and place the rest in the display once I can’t keep up feeding them. I’m thinking my pod and bristleworm population is keeping them from reproducing in the display.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

So I guess the berghia in the one gallon breeding tank are all getting bigger every day. I’m told there’s at least 50 that can be seen and they are of various sizes. I’m thinking that they are not quite as ferocious as one would think. I only had five small aiptasia in the tank and only one has disappeared. No wonder we’re not seeing them disappear in the display. I’m thinking in another week or so that some of the babies will be big enough to place in the display. A couple are now but I don’t want to put less than ten in at one time so they can party together.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

So a little update. Since I’ve started breeding berghia a few months ago, I’ve added an additional hundred or so to the display. I’m about eleven months in from the first addition of berghia to my tank. Between purchased and bred berghia, I’ve added over a couple hundred into the display. They have finally put a noticeable dent in the Aiptasia epidemic. I’m guessing we’re at about the halfway mark. I was tired of maintaining the divider in my display to separate the wrasse, filefish, and dottyback. I actually found that they haven’t had a noticeable affect on the population of adult berghia in the display. They do like the young ones but the 3/4”+ ones have been left alone. Coralline has been able to take up a lot of real estate that was previously shoulder to shoulder Aiptasia. I think I’m finally at the point where I can stop breeding berghia as I believe the population in the tank is probably enough to finish the task at hand. I have multiple egg spirals left in the breeding container and whatever hatches from this run will be my last additions. My experience of placing berghia in the display, thinking they will breed and populate the tank enough to eradicate all the Aiptasia was futile. There are, without a doubt, Amphipods and/or copepods that eat berghia eggs and will not allow for the reproduction of the species. So, if you dropped in a bunch of berghia and don’t see any results after three months or so, you may have the same critters as I. I’m just glad that this has started to turn around. I was at my wits end and about to throw in the towel. Losing your vision really sucks.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Ok, hopefully you can see what I was dealing with in these pics. I can’t tell if the pics came out ok. I tried my best to get the same angles and shots for a before, during and hopefully soon the end of my ordeal. The first pics are from the first week in July 2022, about a year after I started adding Berghia. It was much worse than a year ago when I started my battle after losing most my vision. This was when I had a divider to keep the fish all on one side as I placed the Berghia on the other.

 

[A_Blind_Reefer]

Here is where I’m at today, September 2022, after breeding Berghia outside the tank and adding only 3/4”+ sized Berghia into the tank. I’m told that over 3/4 of the Aiptasia is gone and purple coralline has taken up most the real estate that the Aiptasia had taken hold of. Hopefully we’ll be in decent shape in a couple more months. I removed the divider sometime in July as it was a major pita to keep clean. It was an algae and Aiptasia magnet. I figured this was my last straw before shutting it down and either the Berghia would evade the sixline, dottyback, and filefish or not.