What are my options??

[Coralgurl]

I have quite the aptasia farm in my tank that yes, I have neglected and let get out of control. I bought a filefish a few weeks ago, but he loves the GSP and isn't touching the aptasia.

Other options are a Copperband or peppermint shrimp. As much as I'd love a copperband, I think my other fish are too aggressive to add one at this point.

I had peppermints in the past, but I am sure my yellow coris wrasse made meals out of all my shrimp (cleaners, fire and peppermints).

Using chemical treatment on the aptasia is not really an option as I have way too many, at this point, I need to get them under control in my DT. Then figure out the sump and overflows....

Soooo - what to do????

[vanreefer]

A wrasse will make short work if berghias as well... Sux watching $15 mouthfuls

[GrantB]

That Aptasia cattle prod looks like a lot of fun..

http://www.marinedepot.com/Majano_Wand_Aiptasia_Majano_Eliminator_-PS_Aquatics_LLC-4P1111-FIMIMW-vi.html

Not sure if anyone in Canada carries it.

[christyf5]

I had a majano wand, theres a hard learning curve with it and those aiptasia/majanos that are in hard spots to reach just stay alive (especially the ones that are growing deep in crevices or on the underside of rocks) and I think I had about a 50% success rate in actually killing them, some looked dead but sprung back up within a week or so. Once the filefish finishes off the stuff he likes, he might decide to go after the aiptasia. I found my filefish didn't like the larger ones, so I nuked those with some sodium hydroxide and he took care of the little ones. He also ate all my zoanthids before trying out the aiptasia.

[Reef Pilot]

I have had a Pearlscale Butterfly in each of my tanks for several years now, and they keep them totally clean of aiptasia (where I once had many hundreds). You can read the 1st 7 or 8 posts in my journal link below where I mention them. Much easier to keep than Copperbands (tried them, too), but they also don't bother my corals (contrary to popular opinion).

However, being a butterfly, you do need to quarantine (prazi and hypo treatments) them and train them on regular fish food. If you just plunk them into your DT, they will most likely die sooner than later. I can give a few more tips on keeping them if you are interested.

So if you are up to that, they are nice looking fish, great community tank mates, and a permanent solution to your aiptasia problem.

[hunggi74]

If you go the Butterfly route, source it from Albert Dao. Got mine from him, very healthy, already treated. Highly recommended.

[Coralgurl]

That Aptasia cattle prod looks like a lot of fun..

http://www.marinedepot.com/Majano_Wand_Aiptasia_Majano_Eliminator_-PS_Aquatics_LLC-4P1111-FIMIMW-vi.html

Not sure if anyone in Canada carries it.

I have so many of them, I need long term control as I don't think I'll be able to fully get rid of them!

I had a majano wand, theres a hard learning curve with it and those aiptasia/majanos that are in hard spots to reach just stay alive (especially the ones that are growing deep in crevices or on the underside of rocks) and I think I had about a 50% success rate in actually killing them, some looked dead but sprung back up within a week or so. Once the filefish finishes off the stuff he likes, he might decide to go after the aiptasia. I found my filefish didn't like the larger ones, so I nuked those with some sodium hydroxide and he took care of the little ones. He also ate all my zoanthids before trying out the aiptasia.

Well I am ok with him controlling the GSP, but it will take him a while to work through it all. I don't have any zoas but he just looks at the aptasia and moves on. I cheer him on when he's close, but he keeps passing it up.

I have had a Pearlscale Butterfly in each of my tanks for several years now, and they keep them totally clean of aiptasia (where I once had many hundreds). You can read the 1st 7 or 8 posts in my journal link below where I mention them. Much easier to keep than Copperbands (tried them, too), but they also don't bother my corals (contrary to popular opinion).

However, being a butterfly, you do need to quarantine (prazi and hypo treatments) them and train them on regular fish food. If you just plunk them into your DT, they will most likely die sooner than later. I can give a few more tips on keeping them if you are interested.

So if you are up to that, they are nice looking fish, great community tank mates, and a permanent solution to your aiptasia problem.

Therein lies my challenge. I shy away from a QT tank as I was so unsuccessful with it, caused a huge amount of stress on me and my family, I shut it down. I may still have the tank somewhere, I could always try again. I'd love a butterfly, one of my fave fish, but its for the reasons you note above I've never attempted.

Albert is a fish guru, I'll perhaps touch base with him and see what he has available.

I've tried Bergias, not sure what happened to them, into the tank they went, never saw them again. The wand, or any other chemical treatment likely is not an option, simply because there's sooooooooooo many of them!! I pulled my standpipe out of my main overflow and was so disgusted at the amount on there. I scraped them off into the sink, gross jelliness of goo.

What wrasse eats them? I have a melanarous, yellow coris and Christmas wrasse. None of them have gone near them.

[hunggi74]

When I first got the butterfly from Albert, it was reluctant to eat for the first day as well. Albert had already trained it to eat mysis. When it did start getting hungry, it was too slow compared to its tank mates and got nothing. I started feeding it through a pipette and all has been good since then. I cannot reccommend a copperband more for aptasia. Beautiful fish and does the job. Hope this helps.

[monocus]

i've seen my wrasses put berghia in their mouths and spit them out.i recently put in 3 banner fish in my tank and they cleaned up all the aptasia they could reach

[CM125]

I think with such a huge amount you will need to go with multiple options, I use aptaisax on ones I can see and get butterflies to finish them off, or maybe your filefish, you may need to remove some things for now to get him eating it. Wrasses don't seem to do anything...

[brotherd]

If I could catch my pearlscale I'd give it to you. Then I could get things like brain corals and the like to add to my display. My pearlscale does indeed keep the aip down to zero. At a cost. It also picks at sps, and any weak parts of any soft coral. I watched an interesting technique where it will swim up to a torch and fan it with its fins to expose a soft spot and then hit it.

[monza]

I give more Bergias a try.

[Coralgurl]

More fish not an option now. Something is going on in my tank and until resolved, nothing new is going in.

Thanks for the responses, hopefully one of these will work!

[Skimmerking]

Hey coral I had a file fish and for a week did nothing I wient away to race motocross and after I came home they were all gone i was like WTH lol so ya once he tries one watch out he will revour them. mine loved my ACANs and scollies.:cry:

[Coralgurl]

Hey coral I had a file fish and for a week did nothing I wient away to race motocross and after I came home they were all gone i was like WTH lol so ya once he tries one watch out he will revour them. mine loved my ACANs and scollies.:cry:

So, I should go away for a week?? :lol: He's been in the tank for almost 4 weeks now, lazy bugger!

Seems my issue with my tank has been figured out, I don't have a rampant disease like Brook or Velvet, just a really mean clownfish. I'm still going to let things settle for a while before adding anything. Its not like the aptasia is going anywhere.....just gets more flowy....:twised:

[Delphinus]

Any updates, did the filefish ever start paying his rent?

I have one as well but the little bugger doesn't touch the aiptasia (been about 10 months ... I don't think he's going to start). I'm thinking maybe the next step for me is a big order of berghia but apparently I would need about 20 to 30 so there's a couple hundred dollars, and I don't really trust my fish not to eat the berghia anyhow.

Anyhow if you're interested in berghia as well maybe the thing to do is see if we want to get a couple people together and pool an order. I dunno, not sure how soon I'd want to pull the trigger on such a venture but on the other hand I too feel I'm running out of options so probably have to do something, at some point..

[Coralgurl]

Any updates, did the filefish ever start paying his rent?

I have one as well but the little bugger doesn't touch the aiptasia (been about 10 months ... I don't think he's going to start). I'm thinking maybe the next step for me is a big order of berghia but apparently I would need about 20 to 30 so there's a couple hundred dollars, and I don't really trust my fish not to eat the berghia anyhow.

Anyhow if you're interested in berghia as well maybe the thing to do is see if we want to get a couple people together and pool an order. I dunno, not sure how soon I'd want to pull the trigger on such a venture but on the other hand I too feel I'm running out of options so probably have to do something, at some point..

Not sure when it happened, but yes, he did finally start clearing them out. Not gone yet, but the DT looks so much better than it did!!! He eats frozen too so he's getting fat!!!!

I tried the beghia's quite a while ago, but it didn't work out. I had a brown filefish previously and it didn't touch anything. This green guy has been the bomb!!! Maybe try a different one??? I won't be able to give mine up as my tank was so neglected, I have them everywhere, so he'll just have to keep things under control!!

[Delphinus]

Yeah in previous tanks I've had these guys and they totally took care of aiptasia. Unfortunately each one I did have eventually jumped (which incidentally is how I figured out they were doing the job because guess what came back afterwards?). This one I have now hasn't jumped but is otherwise kinda useless. :lol:

Not sure if it's wise to attempt a second one. I suppose I could try catching this one and moving him to the second tank, but that's kinda easier said than done.

Now that you mention the frozen food thing ... I remember the old ones were the same way (frozen and aiptasia all they ate). This one eats pellets. Go figure. Darn fish really need to get on the same page. It's like they don't even read the internet AT ALL.

[asylumdown]

Not sure when it happened, but yes, he did finally start clearing them out. Not gone yet, but the DT looks so much better than it did!!! He eats frozen too so he's getting fat!!!!

I tried the beghia's quite a while ago, but it didn't work out. I had a brown filefish previously and it didn't touch anything. This green guy has been the bomb!!! Maybe try a different one??? I won't be able to give mine up as my tank was so neglected, I have them everywhere, so he'll just have to keep things under control!!

How long ago did you try the berghia? I wouldn't rule them down for the count just yet. I've tried Berghia three times. The first time took nearly 3 full months before I started noticing anything. I thought they hadn't worked and were all dead. Then one day I noticed a conspicuously large aiptasia was gone. It was another week before I noticed one of the nudis in the tank. Tank was aiptasia free a month later, and I had hundreds of nudis.

Second time 10 went in and three months later nothing, so I bought 10 more from a local reefer. Two months later and still nothing and I thought they hadn't worked, until I realized my sump was aiptasia free and there were hundreds of berghia in it.

Problem with berghia is that they almost inevitably miss a single teeny tiny nem hidden in a crack somewhere before they all starve to death, so a year later you're often right back where you started.

anyway, my point is that I think you should examine your rocks with a flashlight at night if you're seeing the nem's disappearing. I'm sure the filefish is helping, but he might not deserve all the credit. Berghias seem like they've failed utterly until they hit critical mass (i.e. they eat aiptasia faster than they can spread), but once that scale is tipped, aiptasia populations crash pretty spectacularly.

[jason604]

An effective way I did to get rid of aiptasa was squeeze some lemon juice out and use a syringe and inject them directly into the aiptsia. U have to be very quick tho because as soon as u get too close to them they do retract into the rock. From experience each one I did it too died by the next day.

[CM125]

Ive been having luck with aptaisa-x. takes forever but its working

[trilinearmipmap]

One option is just keep a container of vinegar with needle/syringe next to your tank. Every day zap a few Aiptasia, at the same time you are carbon dosing your tank with vinegar. It is quick and easy if you just stick with it.

[TimT]

I had peppermints in the past, but I am sure my yellow coris wrasse made meals out of all my shrimp (cleaners, fire and peppermints).

Have you seen the Coris wrasse eat the shrimp or did they just disappear?

The reason I ask is that there are numerous other causes for shrimp to disappear. If the Iodine level is too low in a tank the shrimp will not be able to molt properly and will die off. With live rock and corals you never know what is lurking in the dark corners of your tank and comes out at night for a snack.

I have used Peppermint shrimp numerous times to clear out aiptasia farms. I feel that they work better as they are able to get more of the aiptasia off of the rocks than fish are.

Cheers,
Tim