Aiptasia

[vvolfe1]

Was just wondering what the best way to get rid of Aiptasia Anenome. 125 gallon tank is full of Aiptasia. Are chemical treatments better than natural? And what are the best treatments and with what? I heard that a type of nudi branch eats only Aptasia too but can not find them.

[Gump]

racoon butterflyfish, peppermint shrimp will both eat it. If its all over your tank id get some Joes juice and squirt it into the food of the aiptasia. or remove all rocks with it and restart. Its going to take a while to get back to normal but keep on it.

[Bear]

i would find out what eats them, maybe these butterflies or the shrimps, get a bunch of them and let them take care of the problem, then when they're done you can just take em back.

[Damon]

Butterflyfish also eat corals. There are at least 3 species of peppermint shrimp, of which only one eats small aptasia. Elegance corals work well but can end up stinging everything else in the tank. The best method in my opinion is quarantine but when that fails, an aptasia nudibranch will eat them. In fact its the only thing they eat. Alas even they have their downfalls. They are hard to come by due to their specific diet. They are expensive. And they move slowly meaning you have to place them next to aptasia. Once they devour all of them its hard to keep them alive.
Heard mixed review on Joe's Juice. I've always made a slurry of kalkwasser and injected it right into them but I've always caught them early when there were few.

[CollegeReefer]

“There are at least 3 species of peppermint shrimp, of which only one eats small aptasia.”

I did not know that. That is news to me. I have always read that the best way is to get a peppermint shrimp, but the peppermint needs to be wild, not tank break. This is also how a fellow nano-reefer I know got rid of her aptasisa problem. I would say give it a try for peppermints are cheap shrimps. You could always try Joes juice or even lemon juice and squirt it into the mouth of the aptasia. Good luck. I personally don’t think aptasia is such a bad thing if it stays in check. Most would disagree with me.

Zachary

[vvolfe1]

I personally don’t think aptasia is such a bad thing if it stays in check. Most would disagree with me.

Zachary[/quote]

I'd agree that Aiptasia are not that bad if kept in check. I just bought this tank though for cheap that was infested with them. They were actually killing the corals and everthing else. I got the tank for dirt cheap because of this and the previous owner gave up. I'd have to say that when I moved the tank home there was close to 200 of them. Now close to 300.
I'll probably get a copperbanded butterfly fish and a few shrimp. I'd like to find some Berghia nudibranchs they are suposedly the ones. Bergia are pretty expensive though at $15 a pop and I need atleast 10.

[Bear]

ok, well what I would do is take what is in the tank that you would like to keep, fish, inverts, corals (ones that do not have the anemone attached to the same rock as it) and put them all in another tank, or large rubbermaid tub. Then I would start all over again with the tank. But that's just me

[Damon]

Starting over with a sw tank is not the same as doing so with a fw tank. Starting over can take a year to do.

[Bear]

not in a true attempt to take over this thread, perhaps it could help in making a decision, but how could it take a year? What exactly does it entail? Does it take a year because of the microscopic stuff that once again has to establish within the tank?

[CollegeReefer]

Starting over is actually a bad thing to do. It is one of the last things you should ever do. Bear this is because by starting over you are loosing all of the benifical bacteria and other micro organism that make a tank thrive. Think back to when you started your tank, you need to cycle it for at least a month before you could start adding things. And even after you add your first inverts or fish you need to wait for the tank to catch up with the bio load. So to get a tank back to where this tank is would take a year or even longer. I would try what we suggested. Give joes juice a try. Fishfirst swears by lemon juice, you should talk to him on chat about it.

Zachary

[TheOldSalt]

There's a lot more going on in a reef tank than in a typical freshwater tank, and it takes a very long time for things to get back to normal when disrupted.

If you have a whole lot of aiptasias, then you might want to consider an option that most aquarists don't have, namely, atlantic butterflies. The atlantic butterfies are renowned for the difficulty involved in keeping them alive, but it turns out that they are really very easy to keep if you can give them plenty of aiptasia bits and blackworms. Take scissors and chop down half the aips every week and shred them, and the fish will go nuts for them. Next week, do the other half. Next week, the first half will have regrown and will be ready for harvest. Banded, spotfins, foureyes, reefs, banks... I've kept these for years this way.

[im_a_clownfish]

would lemon juice be dangerous to use because of the PH drop? One lfs suggested vinegar and I learned the HARD way NOT to use vinegar...... I've used chem marin stop aptasia and it works okay. Joes juice is better, but i find that my button pollups start to shrivel up for about a week after i use joes juice. everythign else looks ok tho...

[Fishfirst]

peppermint shrimp are probably your best and safest bet.

[harif87]

Originally Posted by im_a_clownfish

would lemon juice be dangerous to use because of the PH drop? One lfs suggested vinegar and I learned the HARD way NOT to use vinegar...... I've used chem marin stop aptasia and it works okay. Joes juice is better, but i find that my button pollups start to shrivel up for about a week after i use joes juice. everythign else looks ok tho...

Squirt some diluted lemon juice into the pedal disc. Or try some kalkwasser. Just dont dose too much at one time.

[Damon]

I use a kalk slurry myself. Worked great.

[handvie1]

Ive Used Chem Marin A Bunch Of Times And It Seems To Do The Oposite! It Seems That They Multiply, But Joes Juice Has Helped Me Out A Bunch Of Times, That Stuff Really Works! You Just Have To Keep Attacking Them Day After Day Till There All Gone, Cause There Is Really Now Way Your Going To Get Them All In One Shot. Alot Of Them Shrink Up When They Feel Threatened And You Just Have To Sneak Up On Them When They Reopen. Also Make Sure You Squirt Them In The Middle Cause They Could Just Multiply Even More If You Miss!

[vvolfe1]

Well was talking to a couple people at work that have SW tanks about it. The one has leant me his copperbanded buterfly. The CBf has been in my tank for a couple days now. I have seen him eating but have yet to see a change in Aiptasia problem yet. There are a few corals in the tank but the fish seems to have no interest in them as of yet.

[handvie1]

Yea They Def Will Do The Job! They Are Awesome And Will Eventually Get Every Last Bit Of Them, But When All The Aptasia Is Gone Then He Could Have A Good Chance Of Dieing With Lack Of Food, So Make Sure You Give Him Back To Your Friend After He Does The Job.

[vvolfe1]

Originally Posted by handvie1

Yea They Def Will Do The Job! They Are Awesome And Will Eventually Get Every Last Bit Of Them, But When All The Aptasia Is Gone Then He Could Have A Good Chance Of Dieing With Lack Of Food, So Make Sure You Give Him Back To Your Friend After He Does The Job.

Yeah, the reason that he gave him too me to use is because his tanks are running low on Aptasia for the fish to eat. He says he is going to get a tank set up to grow Aptasia for food. It is pretty nice of him to lend the fish too me. I feel pretty fortunate that where I work there are around a dozen people with SW aquariums.

[vvolfe1]

Well just an update. The copperbanded butterfly is eating like a pig. He's probably eaten around 1/4 of the aiptasia so far. I do see some of them growing back though.