What would your 1st choice be for aiptasia control in a mixed reef?

What would your 1st choice be for aiptasia control in a mixed reef?

  • Copperband Butterfly

    Votes: 33 25.4%
  • Peppermint shrimps

    Votes: 42 32.3%
  • Berghia Nudis

    Votes: 55 42.3%

  • Total voters
    130

alton

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Copperbands, out of three only one ever ate aptasia
Peppermint shrimp ate aptasia, then started after other coral. Removed and then aptasia came back
Berghias take time but work, will not work if you have wrasses which are their number one predator
 

davocean

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@davocean Thanks for the heads up! Just the plain matted file fish . Never ordered a fish before . Now would be a good time. Think I should get 2 in case one isn't interested ?? going into a 75 .

Hard to say at this time, this is my first time keeping one, and I just went w/ one in my 120g, but I was expecting it to be more the size of what I usually see at LFS, this guy was tiny.
If you did get more than one I'd guess you'd have to rehome at least one down the road, and I've never heard how they get along w/ each other
 

Pmj

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@davocean I might look into those. I don't think I can do peppermints or nudibranches with my wrasses (melanurus and leopard). Any other experiences with filefish (maybe add it to the poll)?

CBB looked like huge PITA to get eating and seems hit or miss. Tank is ony 4' 100g as well with a YT.

I bought a majano wand and it just seemed to multiply the aiptasia. I barely had any before.
 

cracker

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Thanks Dave 2 getting along was what I was worried about. I hope he's working for You.
 

Coralreefer1

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Peppermint shrimp make the most sense in a reef tank since Copperband Butterflies are not reef safe. If you have a FOWLR, THEN YOU could use either, based on the inhabitants in your tank. The Bergia would be a good choice, however, once the aiptasia are gone, it will starve due to its very strict and specialized diet.
 

davocean

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peps can be hit or miss like anything else, but as OP mentioned he has wrasses, and I agree they may not fare well for OP.

CBB's, I've had some that were awesome, and ate aptasia, and prep'd foods, some that never ate aptasia, some that just never ate at all, and some that nipped corals, so those are hit or miss as well. As I mentioned I'm told Australian CBB's are supposed to be best, but when I look on liveaquaria ausi's are $200, as opposed to $40 for ones collected elsewhere. I can't swear that makes the difference or not, but I can say their diets do vary.

My present tank I want to have feathers and gorgonians, so I'm trying to avoid CBB's

I figure the file fish are an inexpensive gamble, and they are easy to catch if I have an issue, or wish to rehome later.
 

Bmezz

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Aptasia File fish do work very well but when the job is done they may go after the corals.. I had to take him out and put him in the QT.
Question on the copperband i like that fish and would be happy to get one...i have a 180 so plenty of room.. but being a butterfly do they peck at the corals?
 

MartinWaite

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My first choice is a laser and burn them back to the hell they appeared from but I had one aiptasia that was growing out the middle of a red organ pipe coral and I couldn't get the laser beam on the oral disc so I got a pair of peppermint shrimps in and they soon devoured the last one that was about 3 years ago and I've never had another aiptasia since then.
 

cracker

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Iv'w heard they might. The 3 iv'e had over the years left the corals alone . Too busy pigging out on the frozen foods .
 
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Ksmmike

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I've knocked them out with a shot of lemon juice using a syringe and hitting the aptasia at it's base. Sometimes I had to hit it twice
but that's worked pretty well for me. You can only hit one or two a day so that you don't mess with your alkalinity depending on the size of your tank.
I bought a whole bag of syringes on amazon for like $10 and a $3 bottle of lemon juice at the food store.
 

cracker

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I also use a kalk paste that works well. but I'm sure there are more Ican't see or get to.
 

vetteguy53081

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Copperband butterfly is the ticket and adds beauty to the tank in the same token
 

markfmvl

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They all seem to have their drawbacks. I have a 10 gal invert Qt tank that has been taken over by aptaisia. got two pepermints, one ate at least one aptaisia then disappeared. I'm not sure if the remaining one is eating any or not. Berghias really need to multiply to be effective. Their eggs are eaten by bristle worms, and they, themselves are eaten by some fish, wrasses perhaps. Our file fish cannot be trusted around zoas, he will eat them just like the aptaisia. He also took a bite out of a candy cane. I don't know, maybe he just likes the green ones. I am learning that there are more fish that will eat them. It is just a matter of finding one that will not gain a taste for corals.......I checked into scats, but the $20 price tag deterred me......
 

NY_Caveman

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The best method I have used was boiling water. It kills all tissue so no babies pop up later. My current tank was new and I got a few Aiptasia with the live rock. It was easy to take a live rock piece out, fill a turkey baster with boiling water and squirt it at the Aiptasia. To be clear, I squirted boiling water, NEVER BOIL LIVE ROCK! This may be harder in a large or established tank, but it really worked well.

After that I added a Peppermint Shrimp to get any tiny or hidden ones I missed. I never saw an Aiptasia again (3.5 months later). I will say I found the Peppermint Shrimp to be a jerk. For example he went after a newly introduced BTA while it was stressed from shipping. In a strange irony, the BTA, I believe, later killed the Peppermint Shrimp.

 

Erica-Renee

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Once all the Aiptasia was gone my File fish now goes after those annoying tiny brittle star ,Bristle worms and Keeps the Pods on there toes. The CBB Eats everything we feed them mostly mysis

Two file fish will live just fine in a Tank together from what i was reading.Also it appears that its invisible to all the other fish Super peaceful. I love ours . everyone who looks at are tank and sees it swimming about are amazed at the odd fish
 

albano

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IME...You need to be sure that you're using Caribbean Peppermint shrimp, not camel backs or Pacific Peppermints
I'm pretty sure that my file fish (that did a great job on aiptasia) developed a taste for zoas
 

jgvergo

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my 1st choice is aiptasiaX. I prefer to not add livestock that I don't particularly want if there is another reef safe alternative.
I completely agree. I you get a jump on it, it's easy to control with Aptasia X
 

davocean

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Aptasia File fish do work very well but when the job is done they may go after the corals.. I had to take him out and put him in the QT.
Question on the copperband i like that fish and would be happy to get one...i have a 180 so plenty of room.. but being a butterfly do they peck at the corals?

Out of about 7 CBB's I've had over the years, each ate different things, couple did not eat, 2 were awesome and ate apt and prep'd foods and no corals, so it's pretty random, and the 2 that were awesome were Ausies, which my LFS swears by.

Our local club passes a couple file fish around, but they get snatched up quick, so I figure if mine goes bad after eating apt I'll just add him to that list for someone else to use, at least it should be fairly easy to catch.
 
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