The BEST eradicator of the evil Aiptasia Anemone!

[Janet Belanger]

D. None of the above... Boiling water in a turkey baster, carefully/slowly blast nem with hot water, and then suck it up in the baster when it lets go. This worked perfectly for me and they never came back. Tricky part is avoiding cooking other desirable creatures, and catching the little buggers when they let go.

 

[UK softy bloke]

We've talked many times about how to kill, eradicate aiptasia anemones in our reef tanks. They seem to appear from nowhere and reproduce at a rapid rate so knowing how to get rid of them quickly is pretty crucial. I've put together a list, from a previous thread, and I would like for you to vote for your chosen method that is PROVEN to work for you!

1. In your experience what is the number one, best way, to get rid of aiptasia anemones?

2. What preventive measures do you take to make sure that you don't introduce aiptasia to your tank?

Anyone ever tried the Australian stripey, from what I've seen on gallery aquatica it does a great job if you can find one.

 

[PaulE61]

Zap with boiling water, seems to work for me

 

[Kal93]

I unsuccessfully tried peppermint shrimp (they are both my coral and aptasia), gluing over them, and aptasia X. Nudibranchs were amazing though and took care of my infestation within 5-6 weeks.

 

[sghera64]

I have a filefish in the 240 and a CBB in the 75. There are no aiptasia in them.

There are 10,000 in my fuge so I really don't worry about getting another one.

This is my story too. My Frag tank has a lot of them, but none in my 135 Gal display - - which holds a CBB. I like to take aiptasia riddled frags from the FT and place them in the DT to treat the CBB. If I put the CBB, I’m afraid it will eat all the aiptasia.

However, I’m not sure if one has had aiptasia in a system for a long time that there is a way to completely eradicate without starting over. Those aiptasia seem to remain in the plumbing, sump and other places that our tank dwellers cannot get to and they eventually spread back out through the system.

 

[WVNed]

This is my story too. My Frag tank has a lot of them, but none in my 135 Gal display - - which holds a CBB. I like to take aiptasia riddled frags from the FT and place them in the DT to treat the CBB. If I put the CBB, I’m afraid it will eat all the aiptasia.

However, I’m not sure if one has had aiptasia in a system for a long time that there is a way to completely eradicate without starting over. Those aiptasia seem to remain in the plumbing, sump and other places that our tank dwellers cannot get to and they eventually spread back out through the system.

According to Paul these fish will quite probably outlive me so I am not too worried about that. I have used bergia nudibranchs before and they work too. I would get some of them.

 

[Auquanut]

WOW I'm a bit surprised that Peppermint shrimp is slightly edging out the nudibranchs so far!

Not really all that surprised. I've always kept peppermint shrimp. They've consistently been able to keep the aptaisia from getting to plague proportions. They are not a cure all, but they're also not as expensive or as disposable as nudibranchs. May have to buy a couple more each year. Combined with my matted file fish, they've pretty much eliminated aptaisia from the DT for over a year without any noticeable effect on any of my corals.

 

[Smarkow]

Nothing beats Scat
My filefish did well for a while

 

[jgirardnrg]

I've tried:

- AptasiaX: Initially seems like it works, but then more and more just pop up. I think it's more an annoyance to them, and if you get lucky it might kill them.

- Biota Aptasia Eating Filefish: Loved this fish, but I never saw it go anywhere near any Aptasia. I did catch it eating my favorite Duncan coral (which it ended up killing completely). It was sumped and then traded in at the LFS.

- Berghia Nudibranch: I bought 14-15 of these for my 125G DT. It took a couple months but I think our Aptasia problem is now resolved. I haven't seen the Nudis since I put them in the tank... but now I don't see any Aptasia either. And there were a couple YUGE ones that you couldn't miss.

I feel bad that they Nudis will die off once the Aptasia is really gone, but I never see them so it's not like I can try and catch and rehome them.

If you hang around the tank at night the nudi's will appear. When the Aiptasia is all gone I usually find them on the glass and suck them out with a turkey baster. I breed them so I just move them back to the nudities tank and let them breed.

 

[Morbo]

If you hang around the tank at night the nudi's will appear. When the Aiptasia is all gone I usually find them on the glass and suck them out with a turkey baster. I breed them so I just move them back to the nudities tank and let them breed.

Will have to stay up on night and see if I can catch them out and about. I don't have a breeding setup, but I could pretty easily sell them to people near me with Aptasia issues.

 

[jgirardnrg]

Will have to stay up on night and see if I can catch them out and about. I don't have a breeding setup, but I could pretty easily sell them to people near me with Aptasia issues.

Someone ALWAYS needs them... the only adults I have in stock right are my breeders in their own tank. I could literally setup 8 more tanks for breeding and sell them all day long.

 

[Morbo]

Someone ALWAYS needs them... the only adults I have in stock right are my breeders in their own tank. I could literally setup 8 more tanks for breeding and sell them all day long.

What do you do for breeding the Aptasia to keep them fed? Just mash up some that you see so they keep reproducing?

How do you collect them from the tank in order to sell if you have regular rocks with lots of nooks & crannies?

 

[monkeyCmonkeyDo]

Fire!

 

[jgirardnrg]

What do you do for breeding the Aptasia to keep them fed? Just mash up some that you see so they keep reproducing?

How do you collect them from the tank in order to sell if you have regular rocks with lots of nooks & crannies?

For every Aiptasia I take out to feed the nudibranch, I cut another one in half. Both sides survive and grow.

 

[Low Tech Reefer]

I've always kept Copperbands, never had aptasia problems. They like to eat pesky vermited snails too....

 

[jhj159]

What I honestly did was pull my rocks out one at a time took a bbq lighter that I purchased from the dollar store or grocery store and burnt the Aiptasia for like 20 seconds and they never came back.

 

[mikedgrok]

I use the "napalm" method aka using sodium hydroxide / pure lye to make a slurry. Use this over lemon juice because it is thicker and will form a bit of a cloud on the area where you dose it until you turn the powerheads back on.

Have to be really careful to make sure any droplets don't land and stagnate on corals !!!!!

 

[Frag_mad]

Best cure is a natural one!

 

[14 foot reef]

Amazing how this hobby just wont embrace the power of large angels and aiptasia. I have moved Large angels from infested tank to infested tank and the Aiptasia just disappear before your eyes.

 

[Jibarra]

I dipped all my new corals but somehow aptasia are not affected by the dip..
Peppermint shrimp are okay at getting rid of aptasia, but unfortunately the shrimp eventually get eaten by something in my tank.

Usually, the aiptasia stay on the frag that I bought. So, I use a pippet or syringe fill it up with hydrogen peroxide and ‘clean the frag plug’ A toothbrush with hydrogen peroxide usually scrubs off the aiptasia and it’s remains. This also gets rid of any algae on the plug. Be sure to not get any hydrogen peroxide on the coral, you could water down the peroxide to be safe but will be less effective.