What's your experience with Aiptasia KILLERS?

[jtroxel1]

For those that have tried Peppermint shrimp and had both success and no success, FYI to this little helpful thing.

I screenshot this somewhere along the way inside of a R2F forum. I don't know who posted it (didn't capture that in my screenshot) otherwise I would be happy to give credit.

Thanks for sharing this! I probably will still end up with the wrong shrimp (A and F look really closely alike), but at least I have something to start with. Hope this helps others, too!

 

[bnord]

Aiptasia anemones are a pest to the nth degree! They almost seemingly appear from nowhere and seem to breed in epic proportions. They are a pain to say the least. So in order to be a good steward of our reef aquarium it is up to us to "eliminate" them. But there are so many different ways that claim to get this job done and knowing what works and what doesn't work can be a challenge. There are aiptasia killing wands, aiptasia killing nudis, aiptasia killing juice, aiptasia killing fish and so on and so forth. So today I would like to ask you about your experience with Aiptasia killers!

1. What has been the BEST and most effective "tool" that you have used to get rid of aiptasia in your aquarium?

2. What are all the ways that have worked and have not worked?

berghia nudis eating aiptasia from this zoanthid colony: image via www.saltyunderground.com

1. What has been the BEST and most effective "tool" that you have used to get rid of aiptasia in your aquarium?
Have had a few aiptasia pop up on corals and found F Aiptasia to work well. and included a filefish (who disappeared) and several peppermint shrimp in the display and the refugium - have not found another pest except in the sump away from the refugium - anecdotally the shrimp are doing something - have a filefish from the same CB order who is doing well in an office tank which only had one sighting of aiptasia, and the tank has been clear and several (not all) strains of the zoas from that tank are missing tentacle tips. so .....

2. What are all the ways that have worked and have not worked? see above - my limited experience

 

[Snedabyte]

1. What has been the BEST and most effective "tool" that you have used to get rid of aiptasia in your aquarium?
Berghia Nudi's. In less than 2 months they turned into an army that ate every Aiptasia.
2. What are all the ways that have worked and have not worked?
Aiptasia X, Mojo Wand, Joe's juice appeared to work, but then would return as colonies or in about a couple of weeks there would be Aiptasia everywhere including sand snails and corals. F Aiptasia works but leaves white spots everywhere and I don't think you could use for an out of control Aiptasia infestation like i ended up with after using all these products that say they work.

 

[JamesB310]

Tried everything, nudis probably the best thing I bought but they got ate then bleach, yeah bleach solved my problem after about 3 years!!

Can you elaborate on the bleach method please;Bookworm

 

[Reefzilla]

I have tried multiple different methods including the laser, aptasia X, file fish, peppermint shrimp, and Nudi’s. In my experience, the nudi’s out performed all other attempts to be rid of these pests combined x2! Not to say that this will work for everyone. IMO, the nudi’s are the way to go and worth every penny.

 

[rlamos1]

1. Joe's Juice - sorta worked but you never get them all. Often required more than one treatment on an individual.
2. Kalk - did not work.
3. Peppermint Shrimp - sorta worked but they never seemed to finish the job.
4. Copperband Butterfly - mowed them down to my delight - for about a week then died.
5. Saddleback Butterfly - the absolute CHAMP. A Seek and Destroy Aiptasia machine. Unfortunately it may also seek and destroy other LPS, softies or peppermints if it gets bored or runs out of Aiptasia. A sort of kill the disease before the patient race. I ended up trading the Champ in after the job was done. I am Aiptasia free over 6 years now thanks to this fish.

 

[JCLBUDDY]

Aiptasia anemones are a pest to the nth degree! They almost seemingly appear from nowhere and seem to breed in epic proportions. They are a pain to say the least. So in order to be a good steward of our reef aquarium it is up to us to "eliminate" them. But there are so many different ways that claim to get this job done and knowing what works and what doesn't work can be a challenge. There are aiptasia killing wands, aiptasia killing nudis, aiptasia killing juice, aiptasia killing fish and so on and so forth. So today I would like to ask you about your experience with Aiptasia killers!

1. What has been the BEST and most effective "tool" that you have used to get rid of aiptasia in your aquarium?

2. What are all the ways that have worked and have not worked?

berghia nudis eating aiptasia from this zoanthid colony: image via www.saltyunderground.com

FILE FISH Got rid of All aiptasia within one week.

 

[ChrisP]

Being careful to not introduce them is a better option than having to find the right predator. I had an invasion come in on a Pipeorgan coral colony. I looked but didn’t notice them at first.
I got some shrimp that my wrasse ate after he finished the nudibranch. So I got a filefish who seemed uninterested in them and so I began pulling the Pipeorgan and removed 2 monsters from that, and hit 3 or 5 more on the rocks I could remove and I still had a few small ones I could not get to. Then I noticed that those were missing and I’m going to keep the Filefish since he does eat the little ones.

BRS has been recommending Aiptasia F lately. I bought some and plan to give it a try.

 

[ChrisP]

Peppermint Shrimp always work for me - and they can stay around in the tank after you are set, ready for the next challenge....

I'd like to try a peppermint shrimp in my 5 gallon but hear they may start attacking corals when all the aiptasia are gone. I also worry if it will get along with my two sexy shrimp.

 

[Chessmanmark]

I’ve been in this hobby 17 years.
I was very fortunate over the years for the most part.

I got aiptasia from zoa frags.

My first method was kalk paste. It’s “effective” for sporadic
aiptasia. Then I moved up to Aiptasia x, again a temporary
solution.

Eventually I bought Burghia for one tank and a filefish for the other.
Burghia are an expensive solution. They work, again temporarily, but for a longer period, a year IME. They don’t survive many wrasses.

The problem is that aiptasia can survive in your overflow, plumbing, sump, as well as crevices in the rock.

With my other tank I have a filefish. This fish is always working. While the Burghia die off, the filefish sustains itself with other
types of food.

The filefish comes with caution. It nipped at my torch, but leaves zoas alone. People will post about the corals they might bother, but like the two flame angels I had. One had a taste for coral and the other didn’t bother anything.

Individual fish have different habits, just like people.

 

[GCNanoReef]

I've been lucky, I had one hitch a ride on the skeleton of an Acan I added to my tank, I noticed it when there was a second one growing out of my substrate.

I manually removed with a net as well as about 3 inches of the substrate in every direction and then shaved the one of my frag with a razor and bathed the area in distilled water for about 5 minutes outside of my tank. Then I added a peppermint shrimp to my tank (I'm just running a nano so not much real estate to cover). I havent seen any new ones forming yet and I check ever WC

 

[Ferrell]

I have had them once in one tank and twice in another. Nudis worked both times. Once the were in both tanks at once and as able to move them once finished in small tank. Clean as a whistle

 

[Jcb01]

1. Copperband. Removed all but started nipping on my acans after finishing all anemones. It also found a taste of my Christmas tree worms. So I traded it back with my lfs. Now the aptasia is coming back full force again. I ordered 4 berghia nudis for that.
2. Aptasia x is working a bit but you cannot reach all places.
I have to Peppermint shrimps but I suspect one nipping a acro. Not sure though. They leave the bigger anemones alone...
Copperband is working as long as you can get one that also eats mysis or something to keep it healthy.
Peppermint shrimp does not work that well for me only etas very small ones when I put the frag or rock next to its hiding place.

 

[Djkarp]

I’m not totally sure if this is or not but I have found a few of these sprouting up on some of my rocks. I asked lfs and they said they’ve never seen them with color, anyways I’m not taking any chances, got out the super glue and after a few weeks I got rid of them but I am noticing more when I get my blue flash light out and inspect at night. It hasn’t been a really big pain but it’s something I am staying on top of with my super glue. Can y’all let me know if it is aiptasia for sure?

 

[Dr. James]

I've had good luck with Peppermint Shrimp, not individual shrimp, but 6 to 12 of them at a time.

I've had hit and miss luck with individual file fish and copper banded butterflys. Some were great, some ignored them completely.

The chemicals work but I find that it is impossible to find all of them and prefer biological control.

I just purchased some Berghia last week and am hoping to establish a colony of them. The 3 disappeared pretty quickly in a bare bottom tank with one small rock with several Aiptasia on it. I hope they are still in there and doing well; I hear that they are nocturnal.

The Aiptasia all are gone already and I did see them the Berghia yesterday, making babies. Woot! I was bringing the food (infested rocks) to them to grow a colony but think that since they can disappear so easily in an empty bare bottom tank with one small rock, that I may need to harvest (cut and bring over without adding more rocks) Aiptasia and bring them to the Berghia. Otherwise when I remove rocks I might accidently remove them. I read that cut up Aiptasia is better for the babies anyway; there are already eggs.

 

[vlangel]

Being an aquarium tech for a number of years and seeing how aiptasia can get out of control, I learned to deal with even a single aiptasia quickly. I have always made a thick slurry with tank water and kalkwasser. I use a needleless syringe and shoot the slurry straight down the opening of the oral disc of the aiptasia. I do that daily until there is absolutely no sign of the aiptasia at all.

That being said, I have not actually even seen an aiptasia in my tank for probably 8 years. I scrutinize new coral for just such pests and that has no doubt paid off.

 

[Lou Raffael]

I have tried EVERYTHING and finally found a solution that worked for me. I started with Aiptasia-X which works great but I was zapping 15-30 aiptasia every other day and it was a nightmare. Then tried a copperband butterfly but he had no interest in aiptasia or any food whatsoever and died. Then tried a file fish, this fish was awesome. He cleaned out almost all of the aiptasia but he also ate all of my zoas too so I had to get rid of him.
Finally went with the nudibranch's which did a great job but didn't get all of the aiptasia's. As you know if you leave just one they can come back like crazy if not kept in check. I then added a 3 peppermint shrimp and they have kept the aiptasia under control.
I think it was the mix of the nudi's and peppermint shrimp that did it for me.

 

[Parker Kufel]

1. What has been the BEST and most effective "tool" that you have used to get rid of aiptasia in your aquarium? Aiptasia X

2. What are all the ways that have worked and have not worked? Peppermint shrimp have not worked ripping them out failed and can't have a filefish my tank all ready is full

How did you fully get rid of them though. When I use it they keep coming back. They shrink down I feel like for 2 weeks then comes right back.

 

[Russell Casey]

Sometimes one aiptasia in the thank , the overflow however is filled with those b.st.r.ds...
Those i leave alone , all the offspring of them come in the main tank , and that's perfect food for my copperband

If you want to kill the overflow jerks I did it. I have never been so proud after fighting a war with aiptasia I think I rather get divorced. It is hell. But I had enough. So I had at least 25 big ones in the overflow. I shut off the valves so no water was allowed in the sump or coming from tank. I siphoned all the water out of overflow. I took boiling water several pans worth and filled that pig up and added vinegar as I went I let that sit for a day and a half. I than siphoned it all out. All dead jerks. Took a couple of hours. Wiped it down with vinegar let it dry and started the overflow. The war was over. I had won and now everything gets quarantined. Never again.

 

[Russell Casey]

Sometimes one aiptasia in the thank , the overflow however is filled with those b.st.r.ds...
Those i leave alone , all the offspring of them come in the main tank , and that's perfect food for my copperband

If you want to kill the overflow jerks I did it. I have never been so proud after fighting a war with aiptasia I think I rather get divorced. It is hell. But I had enough. So I had at least 25 big ones in the overflow. I shut off the valves so no water was allowed in the sump or coming from tank. I siphoned all the water out of overflow. I took boiling water several pans worth and filled that pig up and added vinegar as I went I let that sit for a day and a half. I than siphoned it all out. All dead jerks. Took a couple of hours. Wiped it down with vinegar let it dry and started the overflow. The war was over. I had won and now everything gets quarantined. Never again.