Aiptasia! Help!

[BJanecka]

Need help controlling these little b@$^@rds. They are taking over my 75 gal reef. Should I use peppermints or berghis? I've contacted Instar about the berghi and will see if he has any. I can't use a CB unless I remove my yellow tang (learned the hard way). I'm also going to continue to Kalk them, but was hoping to have some help 24/7 via natural predators. Any comments about which one to use? If Instar has the berghi, does anyone else in the Austin area want a few?

[monica]

peppermint shrimp will do a good job, unless you have a fuzzy lion fish then they wount survive, I learned the hard way.

[Tim Marvin]

Call instar.

[Sherri]

I had success with peppermint shrimp also. BUT...when your aiptasia is gone....you might decide to take out the peppermint also. I din't and I caught him picking at my corals and it did kill 2 of my featherdusters. I no longer have ANY aiptasia and I did have quite a few at one time. Just my personal experience.

Larry's (Instar) berghi seems to be real successful also....I'd wait to hear from him before you decide... :D

Good luck with the buggers....they are a pain!

[reefer]

what work for me, is using a syringe and injecting them with boiling water. i picked up a 40cc syringe at Callahans's feed store.
hth
8)

[mhaynes01]

lemon juice works well i heard, inject those little boogers

[GaryP]

Injecting them or using kalk will only kill the aiptasia that you can see and get to. They will always come back. What you can see is probably only a small portion of the total number of aiptasia in the tank.

Gary

[astrong]

I prefer peppermints, you'll need about 6-8 though. Hawkfish will eat peppermints too. Injecting them is a never ending battle. On a positive note all the people at the pharmacy know what reef tanks are. I thought I would get the third degree when I waltzed in looking for hypodermic needles. But someone behind the counter offered, "Reef Tank?" I was glad I didn't have to explain.

[mhaynes01]

yeah thats what i am worried about for my little 15 (they would think i am crazy for asking for a hyperdermic needle) , those little things are popping up out of nowhere probaly 20 of them of them now, but i plan on getting a peppermint also

[Sherri]

I had 2 peppermints in my 100 gal that did the job....for a 75, wouldn't think you would need more than 1 or 2 also...I injected with "heated" kalk which did great for those I could see...but never could get rid of all cause others are in places you can't see or get to. Even had a huge one in my overflow...which freaked me out - didn't know it was there & I touched it...made me jump & hit head on canopy. It was the grandaddy of them all.

[Brett Wilson]

mhaynes01, BJanecka, I live in south austin and have PROVEN aiptasia eating peppermints.
They cleared all of mine out.... I havent seen an aiptasia for a few months...(And I had a lot)
They will also eat lettuce nudibranches and flower anemones but luckily leave my RBTA alone.
I have about 8 of them and since I am breaking down my tank in a week or two they will be easy to catch.
Let me know if you want some/all of them and we can arrange a time. If you had a small frag to trade that would be cool, if not that is cool too. I caught these at the Texas coast in Port Aransas.

-Brett

[Instar]

TurboBrett -- the peppermints will not leave your RBTA alone. They will attack at night, little by little and eventually wear it out. They may even kill it even though it has a protecting clown. I'll take your RBTA off your hands so that doesn't happen though. :) Better take out the pepps as you can see from others on here, they eat everything. Even you said so, they are not selective. They also destroy live rock and pull everything out of the holes in the rock. I won't have them again in a full blown reef. After I took them out of my 75, my 75 exploded with aiptasia a year or so later. Pepps are one of the natural predators, but, with lots of down sides.

[Brett Wilson]

My rose is for sale, actually. Sent you a PM :)

[BJanecka]

Thanks for the help. I'm in Atlanta for the week so I will touch base with Instar when I get back.

[Shark_Bait]

I also have a 75 exploding with aptasia. Will the shrimp eat the aptasia first then move on to other anemones? Could they be removed when the aptaia is gone?
Guess I need help from Instars' little friends too.

[Sherri]

Could they be removed when the aptaia is gone?

Yes, they can be removed - I myself never had a problem catching them. I didn't know at the time I had them that they might bother other stuff, so I didn't watch for it. I have been aiptasia free for 8-10 months now. Not 100% sure they messed with my RBTA, but I know they messed with my featherdusters - caught them in the act. But I had no aiptasia left in my tank at that time. I had just left them in the tank.

Good luck... :D

[brewercm]

I'd go with Instars little citters myself for complete control. I used to inject with lemon juice and it would get rid of the ones I could see and at least were bothering my corals. There were probably plenty more waiting inside the rock I'm sure just like Gary said. By the way realemon works just fine.

[GaryP]

I tried injecting vinegar. It would get rid of the big ones if I repeatedly injected them. It was a PITA. In addition, I found new small ones popping up every where. I finally broke down and had Larry bring me some more Berghia last night. I'm going to take the lazy man's approach and let the Berghia do the work for me. I can think of a few other things I need to be doing to my tanks besides hunting for aiptasia. And besides that, I have enough things to obsess about to have to be worrying about whether peppermint are eating something besides what I want them to. With Berghia I don't have to worry about that.

Gary

[Shark_Bait]

I was going to order some peppermints the other day and was told that they will only go after the smaller ones. After some talking decided to go with a Copper Band. Did I get talked into speding more money. I know CB's are supposed to eat aptasia also but are they as good. My tank has been up for a month with nothing to control them so some of them are pretty big. Should I also see if I could get a Berghia?

[GaryP]

Rob,

CBB's are definitely good at eating aiptasia. There are a couple of problems with them though. They will only eat the ones they can get to. You will still have some back in the LR that they can't get access to. Its really hard to get healthy CBB's from an LFS. They tend to have a lot of parasites. I know that Richard at CB Pets does a really good job of de-lousing these guys. He has one in quarantine for me. CBBs are definitely a much higher maintenance critter than Berghias. You'll have to adjust your feeding program to accomodate them in a community tank. They will also wipe out any feather dusters you have in your tank. They are definitely a great fish, but not one that is easy to maintain.

Larry, jump in here.

Gary

[Instar]

My tank has been up for a month

Forget the Copperband in this case. Its a hard fish and takes a ton of food. Most people loose them for one reason or another. If you do eventually want a copperband, then just put shy small fish in for now and make the copperband the first real fish in there... about 8 months from now. You have a whole mess of algae cycles to go through first. Not all copperbands will chow down on aiptasia like there was nothing else on the planet to eat. They have to be over 3 inches to be more of a sure thing and perferrably 3.5 inches. And then we start talking about a medium fish, not a small one. You need lots of critters, zoos, shrooms and so on to absorb all the extra food you will throw in there. I saw one once that someone thought was healthy. It would only ever eat 3 mysis shrimp. That is what happens to copperbands when their gut collapses from lack of food. Then they waste away and die at the best. This is not a fish of a new tank or one that doesn't have a refugium up going well, a good skimmer, and a mature reef. Exceptions with an experienced reefer or a lucky new reefer don't count. There are always exceptions but, trying to be one is what kills high a number of the copperbands. They also need their own space, so if the tank is not large enough for the other fish to each have a space and leave some for the copperband, it won't go very well for the copperband. A healthy one will defend itself to a point but not against an established tang or other aggressive fish. I had thousands of little aiptasia the copperbands couldn't get to. Those stinking anemones learned to live under shells to be safe or between corals and rocks. A swear they lived in holes and caves. The copperbands couldn't get them and they grew up between corals and messed things up good. Then I put in 8 Berghia. Why 8? Seemed like a reasonable number to establish a colony with. End of aiptasia, no worries with other things, end of story... I still haven't had that aiptasia free party yet. GaryP, did you say you're buying?

[GaryP]

Sure Larry, I'll buy. You're a cheap date.

Gary

[Shark_Bait]

Sorry for the double post in the CBB thread; just trying to get this straight so I can change the order before it ships. As for being up for a month that's after the nitrate spike and there are corals in there; but you're right about the alage cycles. All that's in the tank now is 4 percula clowns and a madarin. Was going to get a lawnmower with the CBB. Who was it again that sells the Beghia? Guess that's the way to go. What can you feed the Berghia after the aptasia is gone?
Thanks

[brewercm]

Once I get my new 180 up and going after we move (whenever that is) I'm going to go the route of the Berghias myself. It would be great to not have to wory about aiptasia. Now if I can only find a Berghia for flatworms so they won't be a worry either. Those seem to have been the biggest nuicenses when I had my reef up last time.

[JimD]

My rose is for sale, actually. Sent you a PM :)

Still available? If so, pm me a price.

[GaryP]

There is a nudibranch that eats aocel flatworms, the blue swallowtail. However, the do not ship well, only live for about 6 months, and do not reproduce in captivity. CB Pets got me a pair of them. They did a good job while they lasted.

Gary

[Shark_Bait]

Instar... you have any nudi's available? If not when do you expect your next crop and can I get in line