Aiptasia -whatever it takes

[Europhyllia]

Blech. I ignored my own advice and used Aiptasia-X again -resulting in a lovely bloom of this stuff everywhere.
It's really getting me down now.

What fish will be guaranteed to eat this stuff? What are the draw backs of it?

[Cammed_02]

I have had good luck with pep shrimp, you just have to find the right ones. Some ppl aren't too fond of them due to picking at some coral. The only time I saw one on a frag was when it was "cleaning" it, a few mins later it was off and the frag was fine.

[FSU]

You used Apt X and it gave you more? I had a few pop up on my rock and I used peppermints as well. I think I only had like 3 of them and then a small piece of bubble algae at the same time. I got nervous and added 8 emerald crabs and 6 peppermints...all gone!

Sorry for your problem....I know pests suck and are so much of a headache.

[betiuminside]

I had a long nose butterfly that ate all my aptasia and after it was eradicated, she passed away! :(
Very sad, but it worked...

[Europhyllia]

I've been reading up on stuff. Seems like the butterflies are the way to go. So what's the drawback to butterly fish?

[Kristy]

I do not understand the popularity of Aiptasia X. The only good thing about that product was the cool syringe. They must have an excellent marketing group behind them because all they did for me was make the aiptasia angry and determined.... to come back with his friends!


Peppermints did work - but only on the little baby ones. If you have any of the big papa ones, then I recommend hitting them with the syringe full of boiling hot lime juice stabbed way down into the body cavity. Or if it is on a rock that you can pull out of the water, flaming them with the old candle clicker is both effective and highly satisfying. Repeated applications for both those techniques may be necessary, but only a couple, and most likely because I missed some of them that were invisible.

Now, I have never had a super huge outbreak to deal with so my advice might be of limited use. But then again, I managed to get it before they got totally out of control, so maybe it IS of use! :)

[Kristy]

Oh and we do have a long-nosed butterflyfish. So maybe that's why we haven't had too much trouble with them? But I've never seen it touch an aiptasia, so who knows....

We once set up a tank with some rock from another guy and it was full of aiptasia. A copperband butterfly mowed them down in short order.

Downside of butterflies: can be hard to get them eating, and even then can be not a very aggressive / thriving eater, but I am pretty confident in your ability to feed ANYthing so that shouldn't be too much concern. Also, can be hit or miss with bothering your corals.

[Europhyllia]

I am sort of tempted to buy a racoon from Inland:
http://www.inlandaquatics.com/info/faq_aiptasia.html

[Kristy]

The raccoons are a nice looking fish!

[Europhyllia]

will they eat my cute little red feather dusters?

[hobogato]

probably, and they may eat your gorgos too

[Mr Cob]

I wouldn't chance a raccoon butterfly, why correct one problem with the chance of a new problem?

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+25+299&pcatid=299

[350gt]

Aiptasia X worked for me... So I think. But I did notice a big aiptasia, I mean huge piece behind a rock.... Been sorta hesitant to get at this one.... He is almost as big as my tube anemone..


Might try the boiling water lime juice method this time.....

[ErikH]

Boiling water always did the trick for me. Before I got to the aiptasia, I would slowly start to squeeze the syringe as to heat the area enough to hopefully kill anything that may eascape into the water column. Of course the aiptasia would retract, which at that time I would quickly go in for a kill shot. Never had an outbreak of it...

[Europhyllia]

I think a big part of why I grow these buggers so well is that I feed so frequently. The gorgos love cyclopeeze a few times a day and I see the aiptasia reach and eat it too I think.

[Bill S]

I wouldn't chance a butterfly...

[cbianco]

Karin, after a brief period of semi-neglect, my tank is teaming with aptasia. I tend to notice a trend, that when I let my tank gets "dirty" the aptasia multiply rapidly (IME).

I plan a three-fold attack on my aptasia problem:

1. 100% water change (well sort of). I will change 10 gallons of water three times over three days. Being that I have a 30 gallon this is not particularly difficult. This should significantly reduce any added bio-load from the neglect.

2. A deep cleaning of all my pumps, especially my skimmer pump. Circulatory pumps will also recieve a deep cleaning and my MP40 will receive a rebuild kit.

3. I've always had peppermint shrimp in my tank until lately. My peppermint of 2 years died. I plan to buy two replacement peppermints as I've typically had good luck with them eating aptasia.

Good luck with your battle!

Christopher :)

[Meslo]

I would say any fish that eats aptasia is a risk to your dusters. Meat is meat ;)

[Europhyllia]

ugh guess I'll be stopping at the feed store for a syringe. The 'needles' that came with the aiptasia-x are so blunt. you'd really have to find a big one and stap it hard to make it work...

[joseph 78009]

I used a kiiens. Butterfly very hardy took care of massive aptaisa out break and stays away from corals a eat frozen food deadly

[LuckySingh]

I hve roughy about 2 hundreds of em and I gave up... They really hard to control but hve nuked em with boiling water and does work like charm


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Europhyllia]

wow Lucky, I can't imagine dealing with these in a tank with nice high end critters like yours.

well I picked up big syringes and 20 GA needles at the feedstore and I am going in now. I expect to be shooting up Aiptasia for the next 30 minutes. I am going with kalkwasser slurry since it doesn't matter if it cools down. Any last words before I get started?

[cbianco]

Any last words before I get started?

"May the force be with you!" LOL, good luck nuking those suckers.

Christopher :)

[LuckySingh]

wow Lucky, I can't imagine dealing with these in a tank with nice high end critters like yours.

well I picked up big syringes and 20 GA needles at the feedstore and I am going in now. I expect to be shooting up Aiptasia for the next 30 minutes. I am going with kalkwasser slurry since it doesn't matter if it cools down. Any last words before I get started?
been very bsy and lazy on this...i guess i got a specially take a day off and be on a mission killing aiptasia

[Europhyllia]

Thanks Christopher. It was very gratifying to see the clear bodies fill up with the kalk. Right now it looks promising but we'll see what it looks like today.
I guess I should reserve 30 minutes a day to this to get it under control...

[CoryDude]

I was going to suggest the kalk slurry. I've had a few show up so I've been hitting them with a kalk paste. I may even invest in one of those zappers Josh had.

[LuckySingh]

how about a group buy for zappers:thumbs_up:

[cbianco]

Thanks Christopher. It was very gratifying to see the clear bodies fill up with the kalk. Right now it looks promising but we'll see what it looks like today.
I guess I should reserve 30 minutes a day to this to get it under control...

So how did it go? How does the tank look today?

Christopher :)

[rrasco]

By zappers are we talking about 1w lasers?

[Europhyllia]

tnak looks good today but the new devil seeds are probably just taking hold in the rock right now to come back stronger and more plentiful than before! :nailbiting:

[SoLiD]

I was going to suggest the kalk slurry. I've had a few show up so I've been hitting them with a kalk paste. I may even invest in one of those zappers Josh had.

Josh actually built that zapper. It was pretty effective and satisfying at the same time. What about this little guy. I have no knowledge about them, but maybe someone else does.

www.liveaquaria.com (http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+30+2562&pcatid=2562)

Matted Filefish
http://www.liveaquaria.com/images/categories/large/lg-26171-filefish.jpg

[CoryDude]

But, what would they eat after the aptasia are gone?

[kkiel02]

I was thinking of getting some nudis but I thought you had tried them? Did yours get eaten or die off?

[StevenSeas]

That matted aka aiptasia eating file is what I used to get my 100+ in my 29 biocube gone. He ate them all within a week, and during that time however I drastically cut back my fish feeding habits so he would be forced to scavenge and pick at the rock work. I think that IA something that is overlooked often times is feeding fish or shrimp when you want them to erradicate a pest. The frozen we feed is just so much easier to get then having to work for it. Its like the drive thru at Mickey D's versus hunting and gathering food, one is much faster and easier... one is much harder bit natural.

Anyways I loved the job my Guy did.

[BSJF]

The problem I had in getting rid of mine is that I can't reach all the places that they were. They were all over the rock, in the overflow and the sump. Unless you get them all they will continue to spread. Fortunately, introducing several peppermint shrimp combined with the kalk treatment did the trick for me. And yes, kalk them every day until you haven't seen any for a while. The peps are pretty good at getting rid of those little tiny ones that are impossible to see and all the others that you can't reach. I kalk all the others so that they focus on those.