Plagued With Aiptasia

Tautog · Mar 7, 2018

I had them, a dozen Peppermints, and injected Lemon juice into the larger ones. In fact, the juice works great on mushrooms. Injecting the day before a WC, then sucking them right off the rock during the WC. The shrimp have since reproduced.

O'l Salty · Mar 7, 2018

I've had good luck with Matted Filefish. I let my aiptasia grow for over a year in a 20 long and there were hundreds and hundreds of them. 1 month later and you can't find a single one.

Dr. Reef · Mar 7, 2018

you can take 1 or 2 rocks out of the tank at a time and leave in heat/dry for few days then rise and scrub and place them back in tank and take few more out. do this for few times and all aiptasia will be gone. do keep eye on ammonia or mini cycle spikes.

Sfplaya1 · Mar 7, 2018

Dr. Reef said:
you can take 1 or 2 rocks out of the tank at a time and leave in heat/dry for few days then rise and scrub and place them back in tank and take few more out. do this for few times and all aiptasia will be gone. do keep eye on ammonia or mini cycle spikes.

If I can’t get any peppermint shrimp in my local area I’ll probably do this. Currently a huge snowstorm in the east

Fourstars · Mar 7, 2018

Kill off the big ones with aiptasia X and leave the babies to the peppermint shrimp. No big deal, and you definitely don't need to tear the tank down!! My peppermints took care of the issue for a few years till they died of old age. The minute they left the scene I had many new aiptasia. Two weeks latter and a new patch of shrimp and it's under control without an aiptasia in sight.

xCry0x · Mar 7, 2018

BobNY said:
I forgot to add. Any time I tried Aiptasia X or Joes juice they seem to have killed the ones I hit and caused 10 more to sprout up near by.
Same with the Marano Wand.

Exact same experience. Kalk paste, Aiptasia X -- it would always result in more Aiptasia popping up.

Peppermint shrimp always worked for me -- I have seen them fail to eat big aiptasia though. The big ones I would nuke with chemicals and then the peppermint shrimp would seemingly clean up anything that sprouted from there.

Without the shrimp, if I nuked one Aiptasia it might disappear but within a few weeks there would be more in the tank.

I do have horrible success keeping the shrimp long term though - they never seem to last more than a few months for me.

Sfplaya1 · Mar 7, 2018

I just picked up the last 2 peppermint shrimp.

Gamma · Mar 7, 2018

Dr. Reef said:
you can take 1 or 2 rocks out of the tank at a time and leave in heat/dry for few days then rise and scrub and place them back in tank and take few more out. do this for few times and all aiptasia will be gone. do keep eye on ammonia or mini cycle spikes.

I have what I thought was just bad algae bloom but cannot get it under control after months of hand removing, weekly water changes...thought about removing rocks to just scrub real good with DI water. Rocks have lots of detritus too on lower areas. 5 yr Established 75g DT with 20g sump. Any thoughts?

ReeferBob · Mar 7, 2018

Gamma said:
I have what I thought was just bad algae bloom but cannot get it under control after months of hand removing, weekly water changes...thought about removing rocks to just scrub real good with DI water. Rocks have lots of detritus too on lower areas. 5 yr Established 75g DT with 20g sump. Any thoughts?

Algae turf scrubber!

Melinda01 · Mar 7, 2018

Tedzilla said:
Well, I can say that if you get a good peppermint, he'll clear it sooner than later. Like the other folks mentioned, they got a few. I usually get one, because I don't want that many peppers taking up my diversification. I'd pop a medium to large one in, and take note of all the pests, and see if any disappear. Sometimes you get one that just doesn't want to work. Most of the time though, one will decimate the tasia' colony quick as all get out.

Sfplaya1 said:
Recently More & More Aiptasia has been popping up all over my tank. I've nearly ran out of aiptasia X and i'm looking for something that sorts of eats aiptasia. I currently have 2 wyoming whites, Power blue tang, and starry blenny and an assorted zoanthid species which i picked up from a lfs.

Peppermints will do the trick! I have a 72 gallon with a bad aptasia outbreak, ordered 6 peppermints from vivid aquariums, and within days it was completely gone!

Mogden · Mar 7, 2018

Has anybody ever tried coral glue or epoxy putty. I have did coral glue twice and it has seemed to work great. Probably wouldn’t work on tons of them but works on one or two. I just make them such back in the rock and fill the hole,crack, or little gap with coral glue seals them in and haven’t seen them again. No chance of a piece coming off and growing somewhere else

Mogden · Mar 7, 2018

Has anybody ever tried coral glue or epoxy putty. I have did coral glue twice and it has seemed to work great. Probably wouldn’t work on tons of them but works on one or two. I just make them such back in the rock and fill the hole,crack, or little gap with coral glue seals them in and haven’t seen them again. No chance of a piece coming off and growing somewhere else

Tedzilla · Mar 7, 2018

Mogden said:
Has anybody ever tried coral glue or epoxy putty. I have did coral glue twice and it has seemed to work great. Probably wouldn’t work on tons of them but works on one or two. I just make them such back in the rock and fill the hole,crack, or little gap with coral glue seals them in and haven’t seen them again. No chance of a piece coming off and growing somewhere else

That would start to plug up avenues for water to travel thru the rock, hindering filtration. I know it would be really minimal if it was just one or two; but it's never just one or two. Especially if they release spores before you kill them. If you want to spot kill aiptasia, best to inject them using a syringe and boiling water. Ultimately, peppermints work the best, because unlike the Berghia nudibranches which ONLY eat aiptasia.... once the aiptasia are gone, they won't starve, and they'll promptly eat up any rogues that pop up later on.

Mogden · Mar 7, 2018

Tedzilla said:
That would start to plug up avenues for water to travel thru the rock, hindering filtration. I know it would be really minimal if it was just one or two; but it's never just one or two. Especially if they release spores before you kill them. If you want to spot kill aiptasia, best to inject them using a syringe and boiling water. Ultimately, peppermints work the best, because unlike the Berghia nudibranches which ONLY eat aiptasia.... once the aiptasia are gone, they won't starve, and they'll promptly eat up any rogues that pop up later on.

I used a tooth pick to put a little dab of glue on the aiptasia Not coating the whole rock. I don’t think thats gonna effect water flow for filtration.

Tedzilla · Mar 7, 2018

Mogden said:
I used a tooth pick to put a little dab of glue on the aiptasia Not coating the whole rock. I don’t think thats gonna effect water flow for filtration.

Oh yeah then, not at all. I pictured a rolled up ball of epoxy, and Smush! lol My bad. Hey, whatever works.

Marie7 · Mar 7, 2018

BobNY said:
I forgot to add. Any time I tried Aiptasia X or Joes juice they seem to have killed the ones I hit and caused 10 more to sprout up near by.
Same with the Marano Wand.

Marie7 · Mar 7, 2018

The safest way is to add few peppermint shrimp, I start see some and multiply quick, I add the shrimp and it took about a month to all disappear. Also some people mention to get a Copperband fish but they will die by starvation if proper diet supply is gone in this case the apstasia.

vetteguy53081 · Mar 7, 2018

Copperband butterfly for sure.

Alternative is a syringe applied directly into core of apt anemone using:
a- Joes Juice OR
b- Lemon juice OR
c- Kalkwasser diluted into a semi thick paste OR
d- Boiling water.

Any of the above will do the trick

Osteoclast · Mar 7, 2018

Get a Klein's butterfly. Reef safe and an easy butterfly. Not too expensive.

Or for beauty--if you can afford--the Tinkers complex are SPS LPS safe and super hardy, great eaters.

I have had both with excellent results.

Mindi · Mar 7, 2018

I have stopped buying Aiptais X when I discovered that squirting straight vinegar (maybe 2 mls) right at them and leaving the water still for 10 minutes works at least as well as Aiptais X but probably better. Still a hopeless solution. Only contains the problem at best. I have been going to get a Copperband as my next step. I am concerned with Peppermint shrimp that they might eat the fins on my sleeping wrasse...I cant keep Hermits for that reason. Anyone got Peppermint Shrimp with Wrasse..???