Aiptasia Control

[J_G]

Does anyone have any experience with form of aiptasia control. It sounds like these nudibranches reproduce very fast in the tank. :o

http://www.berghia.net/marketprice.html

[matt]

Try a search, you'll find all sorts of discussions. There was a maast member raising these. Keeping them alive in your tank is not easy.

[MikeyBoy]

Check with Instar............he breeds them.

[brieman]

Alex got me some nudibranch, took a little while but aiptasia is history

[Thunderkat]

Aiptasia are not really a big problem. There are many things out there you can use to take care of them.

There are injectable liquids that kill them and critters that eat them.

Some peppermint shrimp will eat them but they also eat some corals. The berghagia eat them also (send message to Instar he sells them). Some copper banded butterflies will also eat them but before you go that route make sure you can spend the time and money needed to get them to start eating (according to one of my books most of them will not eat in captivity).

[Reef69]

Aiptasia are not really a big problem.

Not true, its probably the biggest problem. Alot of people give up and quit the hobby because aptasia takes over completely. Id go with Joe's juice, or if they are in hard to reach spots, id get some berghia, but i wouldnt get peppermint shrimp,if you have any RBTAs, or LTA's or any anemone, they will eat them aswell..as far as copperband butterflies, they are hit or miss in a reef tank..HTH's

[CD]

It sounds like these nudibranches reproduce very fast in the tank.

They will reproduce in line with the amount of food they have to eat (the aptasia). If you have a lot of aptasia, you will end up with a decent amount of berghia to take care of the problem...it takes a couple of months for them to increase their numbers, but it is the safest natural way to rid yourself of the aptasia. Once your problem is gone, their numbers will wane significantly. If you get some, just make sure and do a careful acclimation, and when you put them in your tank, do so with the lights and flow turned off (in an area with the highest density of appies) for about 15 minutes or so. This gives them enough time to get a good grip on your rock work - they are pretty small, but good workers. I used a measuring spoon to carefully place them on the rock...works great! ;)

W.

[gjuarez]

You can probably also inject the aptasia with kalk, i have heard it works well in getting rid of these pests.