What's your preferred method for eradicating aiptasia? Or do you just manage it?

Daniel@R2R

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What's your preferred method to completely clear a reef of aiptasia? I've tried multiple types of natural predators and they're good for beating it back, but never seem to completely do away with it... Or is complete annihilation an impossible goal?

Asking for a friend... ;Smuggrin :cool:
 
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Daniel@R2R

Daniel@R2R

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I was using aiptasia x but they kept coming back. Ordered some F-aiptasia from franks tanks and they have yet to return, good stuff.
I've heard great stuff about F-aiptasia. I think I need to get some. I was actually planning to make that purchase. I do wonder if I'll be able to get them all with it though (just bc of trying to reach the hidden ones).
 

408Dartfish

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Berghia nudibranch

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Bleigh

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I’ve always got them too. Every try with peppermint shrimp has resulted in corals getting ate too... i hate sticking my hand in for the aipstasia x every time i see aipstasia. And sometimes I just don’t have time.
 

intricate_reefer

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I've heard great stuff about F-aiptasia. I think I need to get some. I was actually planning to make that purchase. I do wonder if I'll be able to get them all with it though (just bc of trying to reach the hidden ones).

If may be difficult if you can’t find them. If you know where they are, even if they are deep in a crevice it works well because it actually hardens and makes like a crust that completely covers them. Then during water change you can just crush and siphon it out.
 
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Vinman

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The natural way is peppermint shrimp I mean a lot of them 15 to 20 will get rid of all of them at least that's what worked for me haven't seen one in a year however I probably only have two or three shrimp in my tank left
 

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I’ve always got them too. Every try with peppermint shrimp has resulted in corals getting ate too... i hate sticking my hand in for the aipstasia x every time i see aipstasia. And sometimes I just don’t have time.

yes, what she said. I find peppermint shrimp are the best, but they will take some zoanthids with them for sure.
 

Hemmdog

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I’ve had good luck with peppermint shrimp. It takes awhile but they get it eventually, if the aips are growing off your powerheads that’s tricky, peppermints won’t bother those in my tanks.
 

ScottR

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I tried the just manage it route. Basically just tolerate them. They didn’t reproduce or anything. Then one day I saw one eat a huge chunk of food I fed my tank. It got huge and I could see the food in its now see-through belly. I decided to lemon juice it out of frustration. 2 days later they were all over a zoa frag. I took out the frag and freshwater dipped it. Zoas weren’t happy for a couple of days but surprisingly the aiptasia was gone. Then I noticed they were everywhere again. A friend said he got a bunch of peppermints in and sent me video of his shrimps actually teaming up to eat the aiptasia. I’ll get the shrimps in a couple of days.

*** There are many different types of peppermint shrimps out there. They all look similar but only a certain type (or types) eat aiptaisa. So if you haven’t had luck, this is probably why ***
 

ScottR

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yes, what she said. I find peppermint shrimp are the best, but they will take some zoanthids with them for sure.
After my peppermints eat all the aiptasia, I’ll warehouse them in the sump until needed again. But honestly, if they eat aiptasia, they’re welcome to munch on my zoas.
 

jsker

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Matted Filefish. I had aiptasia everywhere at one point, tried all of the above and seem to have more. I bought a Matted filefish and with in 3 weeks the tank was clean and has been clean for years now.
 

Peach02

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In my personal tank I just manage it with lemon juice but when I upgrade ill only use dry rock and not bring over any frag plugs which will hopefully prevent it

In our tanks at work we aim to minimalise it in the live rock tank, aptasia x in display tanks and the frag tanks only have it in the weir or under the egg crate and we can never fully get rid of it but in one of our two frag tanks we have limited it to the weir but the other its under the eggcrate. I don't see it in our colony tanks but it is probably in the weir out of our reach (the tank + stand is at my head hight when combined and it takes us a ladder and a lot of dodgey leaning to change the filter wool in the weir so I doubt we could accurately use aptasia x. In our frag tank with the aptasia under the egg crate we often keep copper band butterfly's in there while we are getting them to eat but they rarely touch it probably due to it being under the egg crate
 

SashimiTurtle

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These guys... yes, I meant to include the picture of the shrimp. That "little" dude has been with me for two and a half years and devours aiptasia. The copperband is about two months in my system and it was clear of aipys when added, but I'm sure if one pops up and the shrimp doesn't get it first, she will eat it.

20190813_204102.jpg
20190909_182553.jpg
 

erk

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I tried matted filefish, all he is good for is eating cloves. At least he doesn't eat anything else...yet. I think mine is just defunct though.

I've tried peppermint shrimp and they worked well until they died. Pretty sure my melanurus and boxing shrimp were their undoing.

I've used berghia and they work very well over a long period of time. Takes them forever to get started, but eventually the aiptasia disappears. I'm talking over the course say 6 months or so.

Lastly, I've used F-aiptasia. This has to be the best chemical eradication method I've used. I primarily used it on large aiptasia.

All in all, I found the best success with a multitude of methods. Peppermint shrimp and filefish would be great for regular maintenance, like a tang is great for keeping algae under control. Berghia and F-aiptasia are great for getting an out-of-control situation back under control so filefish and peppermint shrimp can do their job. Target the largest aiptasia with F-aiptasia and let the berghia tackle the numerous small ones. Berghia have a harder time with the large ones and the large aiptasia can kill young berghia.

With these methods, my once overrun sump is now bare. When I say overrun, I had hundreds if not thousands of aiptasia. Everything from the size of a large grain of sand to pinky finger. Growing on every available space. It was actually kind of cool.
 

erk

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These guys... yes, I meant to include the picture of the shrimp. That "little" dude has been with me for two and a half years and devours aiptasia. The copperband is about two months in my system and it was clear of aipys when added, but I'm sure if one pops up and the shrimp doesn't get it first, she will eat it.

20190813_204102.jpg
20190909_182553.jpg

Surprised your boxer/coral banded eats aiptasia. I have had one for the same period of time and it is very large and doesn't touch the stuff.
 

SashimiTurtle

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Surprised your boxer/coral banded eats aiptasia. I have had one for the same period of time and it is very large and doesn't touch the stuff.
I was told it's hit or miss. I had a few aiptasia pop up in the tank. I found a small one on a frag I missed. I removed it from the tank, got rid of the plug and put coal on new plug, dipped... ect. It still got in. A month later I had babys popping up. The shrimp was in the sump for a year, and one day decided to move him up because he got sucked into the intake on the skimmer but was too big to go all the way in. A week later and there is no sign of aiptasia.
 

erk

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I was told it's hit or miss. I had a few aiptasia pop up in the tank. I found a small one on a frag I missed. I removed it from the tank, got rid of the plug and put coal on new plug, dipped... ect. It still got in. A month later I had babys popping up. The shrimp was in the sump for a year, and one day decided to move him up because he got sucked into the intake on the skimmer but was too big to go all the way in. A week later and there is no sign of aiptasia.

Not to detract from the thread too much, but try shining a black light at your coral banded shrimp. I use a black light flashlight occasionally in my tank and see all sorts of cool things, but with the coral banded shrimp, parts of them fluoresce. Mainly the small inner claws and the fans on their filter feeding arms. It is pretty cool.
 

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