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

jd371

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Jun 26, 2015
Messages
2,108
Reaction score
2,111
Location
Long Island, New York
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
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
This is the first time hearing about this are CBS known to eat Aptasia or is yours unique? My CBB doesn't touch the Aptasia at all.
 

fishybizzness

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 3, 2017
Messages
2,460
Reaction score
3,383
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
My previous CBS used to eat aptasia until I added a toby puffer and filefish and they decided to gang up on it and have it for dinner! my current bonded pair of cbs don't seem to touch it. I've had very good results with franks f aptasia with the ones that are accessible. Any that are under overhangs or in the overflow, not so much. I've pretty much learned to live with those. They're actually pretty good filter feeders. As long as they don't get close to the corals I'm ok with them. I may add another filefish eventually after the CBS's die as I've had good results with them in the past!
 

jd371

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Jun 26, 2015
Messages
2,108
Reaction score
2,111
Location
Long Island, New York
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Yeah, I would try a CBS but I don't think that will work out with the Red Corris Wrasse. I've had the Copperband now for 4 years and it has never touched the Aptasia at all. Recently added a Filefish and besides one Acan that I moved to another tank hasn't gone after any other coral so that's good but pays no mind at all to the Aptasia so I named him Deadbeat. I have been using Frank's and it works like a charm for the ones that are easy to get to, the ones in the crevices and hanging upside down i'll have to live with.
 

muzikalmatt

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 23, 2019
Messages
1,254
Reaction score
2,552
Location
Roanoke, VA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
First one I nuked with Aiptasia X. Then I got a peppermint shrimp for a more natural approach and I guess he took care of them as I never saw them again. However, the peppermint started eating my euphyllia so I had to get rid of him. Luckily I haven't seen any more aiptasia since his removal.

aipX.jpeg
 

Scurvy

Pirate Reefer
View Badges
Joined
Jun 30, 2016
Messages
5,923
Reaction score
25,109
Location
Not the middle of nowhere
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Never had any luck with Pepermint's and they would usually irritate or eat some coral. Aiptasia-X worked only as gasoline to the fire IME, Kill one and three more appeared a few days later. F-Aiptasia worked the best of any checmical remedy I tried.

Handsdown though Berghia Nudi's have worked the absolute best for me. They do take a long while to procreate and attack the population and are expensive for what they are but IMO worth it in the end. I'll skip the rest of it and go strait to the Nudi's from here on out.
 

ca1ore

10K Club member
View Badges
Joined
Oct 28, 2014
Messages
13,803
Reaction score
19,657
Location
Stamford, CT
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
In my experience, once aiptasia (or majanos) gains a foothold in your tank, it is quite difficult to completely eradicate it. The bigger the system, the harder it is. Not impossible to eradicate, but difficult. Things like aiptasia-X, joes juice, hot water, cursing at them, etc., are helpful when there are only a few pests; much less useful once the numbers climb. As a large-tank keeper I have found a biological control, almost always a fish, to be my preferred approach. A fish may not work in a smaller tank, and peppermint shrimp may be a better option. The Asfur angel, for example, is an excellent predator of pest anemones, but it needs space and will probably eat zooanthids as well. Either way, a biological approach is a control, not an eradication. Remove the predator and the pests likely return.
 

Peace River

Thrive Master
View Badges
Joined
Apr 29, 2014
Messages
21,466
Reaction score
164,293
Location
USA
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
I’ve tried a lot of “solutions” with varying levels of success and F-Aiptasia Killer seems to be the most effective, most reliable option.
 

Nhltc99

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 31, 2018
Messages
100
Reaction score
113
Location
Whitewater, WI
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Berghia Nudibranchs worked great for me, it was getting out of control in my tank and after a few weeks the tank was cleared out of aptasia. However, one did manage to pop back up on my return nozzle that they mustve missed and I'm not sure there are any nudibranchs still alive in my tank.
 

andrewkw

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Jun 1, 2014
Messages
2,895
Reaction score
6,834
Location
Ontario, Canada
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I have them in my display tank. They are mostly on the back of rocks. Occasionally one will pop up on either the front or the side. Probably every 2-3 weeks I'll spend 5-10 minutes getting them with aiptasia x or any of the other over the counter products. They all work "okay" imo in that if you use them properly you should be able to get them.

The next time I upgrade - which could be years and years away I will make an effort to get the ones on the back of the rocks then, but it's really not the end of the world. People freak out about them when as long as you actively monitor your reef they are not a big deal in any way. If anything the fact I spend 5-10 minutes looking for aiptasia means I am also checking coral health, finding knocked off frags and other minor issues.

Now in my frag tank I make every effort to irradiate them, it's a lot easier because I do not have rock in the display and I don't want to accidentally give any to anyone else and have them post a "tank emergency" because a frag I gave them had one on the bottom of the plug :)

A sterile tank just doesn't do it for me. I'll take a couple of pests and thousands of good things vs no pests and little good.
 

mta_morrow

Of course I have room for 1 more fish!
View Badges
Joined
Sep 15, 2015
Messages
7,234
Reaction score
29,674
Location
Sumter, SC
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
First attempt was with Aiptasia X. Resulting population explosion force me to try berghia nudibranchs. All visible aiptasia was gone within a month.

That was 5-6 months ago.

Since then, I’ve had 3 show up. I used F Aiptasia per instructions and all 3 were gone.

My name is Mike, and I have been aiptasia free for 3 months!
 

drawman

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 27, 2016
Messages
3,537
Reaction score
3,604
Location
Florida
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I would say the only way to eradicate is to never introduce them which I have done so far (knock on wood) with my current tank. For management I got lucky with an aiptasia eating filefish. Berghia work wonders but you have to cultivate them as the aiptasia will come back.
 

MnFish1

10K Club member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 28, 2016
Messages
22,559
Reaction score
21,786
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
I actually have had only 1 - and it just proceded to get bigger and bigger - never spread.
 

Jettareefer223

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Jan 18, 2019
Messages
530
Reaction score
1,006
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Well where do I start...
-Tried pepermints 25 total my purple tang hunts them down and gets all my fish in a frenzy. Even if I add them lights out 1am when the lights come on the carnage immediately ensues.

-berghia’s worked well only until my wrasses ate them.
All my wrasses jumped out or died from old age which sucks lol. I’m probably going to get more berghias I’ve had great success with them on my clients tanks!
-Added a filefish as a last resort within a week he ate my whole collection of zoas (sunny d’s, kraks, ultra ommpa loompas, utter chaos, tubs blues, Scrambled eggs, orange oxides, pink mauls, spitfires, CB disco infernos, amour of gods, WWC gobstoppers just to name a few and continuously nipped on my orange plate and acans). Then after all the zoas he worked on the aiptasia. The day he went carpet surfing I was extremely happy I know that’s horrible. But It took me forever and lost a ton of money/zoas to get the collection I had. They just wouldn’t acclimate well since my tanks shallow lighting super intense.

-Aiptasia x and kalk just make them spread so I refuse. Works great if you have a couple no doubt not a viable solution if there are a decent amount no matter there’s always some that are impossible to get to anyways.....

I continue to live them and have done so for nearly two years.
 

rossco

.
View Badges
Joined
Jul 25, 2006
Messages
758
Reaction score
1,131
Location
Redding, CA
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Quoting myself from a different Aiptasia thread I participated in. I am still Aiptasia free for well over a year now.

“I have spent over 500 dollars on berghias in the past in 2 separate orders. First time, they did a decent job, but died off before eating every last aiptasia. A year and a half later my display was literally infested. Second order did no good at all, they must have all died from the get go.

I was going to go with a matted filefish (also known as the aiptasia eating filefish) and the two at the LFS did not eat aiptasia in their holding tank. So I skipped them.

I had resisted peppermint shrimp because they have a tendency to poach food out of the mouth of LPS after spot feeding. I have very few LPS these days, not by choice but had some sort of infection that wiped most of my acans and chalices out, so in desperation I bought 8 peppermint shrimp for my 210. A month later, I could not find a single aiptasia and am still aptasia free.

Find a small piece of rubble with aiptasia on it and take it with you to the LFS. If the LFS is cool like mine, they will let you drop the rubble in the peppermint shrimp tank and you can target and catch the shrimp that go for the aiptasia. If they won't let you, the variety of peppermint shrimp that "dance" back and forth while resting seem to do a better job.”
 

Florida Sunshine

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Feb 20, 2017
Messages
698
Reaction score
977
Location
Cocoa, Fl
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I have almost eradicated them from plague proportions. Double whammy Berghia Nudibrach and Aiptasia X combined with removing some rocks, letting them dry and then bleaching them clean.
 

motortrendz

2500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 31, 2011
Messages
2,833
Reaction score
5,754
Location
Lacey NJ
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I made the mistake of using aptaisa x to.kill 3 very large ones in my tank. 3 weeks later I had about 300 tiny ones growing everywhere in between zoas and on every crevice in every rock. I tried to use it more and just made more again. I lost it. Lol. I tried a file fish, nothing, nudis, wrasses ate them before they even hit the rocks (expensive snack) I knew better than to get shrimp after that... I got a copperband butterfly. He took about 3 month but eradicated every last one of them. And then starved to death.. a real hero.. made me mad actually. I didn't realize he was starving maybe he wasnt I dont know. He was fine one morning then floating on his side in the afternoon. But it did an amazing job
 

Thomthom329

Active Member
View Badges
Joined
May 21, 2014
Messages
302
Reaction score
72
Location
Northern VA (Washington DC)
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
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
Remind me not to purchase from your work tank.
 

foxt

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Apr 6, 2016
Messages
1,633
Reaction score
2,362
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Like others, I too have tried almost everything: Berghia, peppermints, filefish, copperband, and aiptasia-x. I have had success with all of these at various times. It seemed especially effective to combine a couple of different approaches, at least the combinations that don't eat each other (for instance, peppermints eat the Berghia).

I introduced a copperband a few years ago as my first foray into controlling aiptasia. It took a while before it developed a taste for them, but it kept the DT clear of visible specimens. The problem was that they had made their way into the sump before the CB had been able to get to all of them.

I tried to keep up with the largest aiptasia in the sump with aiptasia-x, and that worked great, but the smaller ones eluded me. My sump has different areas with different flow characteristics, and it was hard to try to get to the aiptasia in the rocks with the aiptasia-x.

So then I added Berghia to the sump. That worked ok in the lower flow areas where there was more rock and places for them to be protected from the flow, but it didn't seem to work too well in the more open sections where I had some frag racks and little rock. I figured the Berghia weren't able to move around as well in that part of the sump. So, I added a filefish to that section. It was a captive-bred ORA specimen, and it immediately took to eating aiptasia.

Between the Berghia, the file fish, and the copperband, they cleared the tank pretty quickly. Problem was that once the aiptasia were gone, the Berghia died off. Then small aiptasia began appearing in the rocky part of the sump again. So, in went some peppermint shrimp. I made sure that I got the variety that are more likely to eat aiptasia, and they seemed to get it under control.

So, now I have peppermint shrimp and a filefish in the sump, and a CBB in the DT, and I haven't seen aiptasia in quite a while.
 

A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

  • I currently have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 74 37.4%
  • Not currently, but I have had feather dusters in my tank in the past.

    Votes: 68 34.3%
  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 12.6%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

    Votes: 29 14.6%
  • Other.

    Votes: 2 1.0%
Back
Top