Aptasia

[krschulz]

Does anyone have experience in ridding this from a reef tank by non chemical means? I've heard fox face butterfly fish will eat this but may also go after my soft corals too. A peppermint (?) shrimp was also something I read. Any one have a favourite to use? I was not aware that these were pests so have let them go for about 9 months but am finding more and more all the time. Thanks in advance.

[Canuckgod420]

I have 2 peppermint shrimp and a copperband butterfly.....havent seen 1 in at least 2 years.

[Underwater]

These work well and are sure to rid your tank of any aptasia. It's the only thing they eat, so they are completely reef safe.
I have some if you would like to try them.
~M

[mark]

I knocked back all I could reach with kalk paste then peppermint shrimp got the rest.

[TJSlayer]

Peps do work but generally will not touch the larger ones, and some may not even touch it I have 5 in my 75 and 3 will work on the apstasia, but I still have been using the apstasia destroyer stuff from tailor aquatics on the rest.

Winning the battle slowly but the guy who had the rock before me let it grow free, so there was lots to get rid of.....

The pepermint I had a t work knocked the stuff out of my 10 gallon within the week....

Copper bands are suppose to do wonders, but I have no personal expoerience with em, as well as the b nudibranchs....

good luck...
TJ

[Captainhemo]

Peps are really hit and miss. I've boght 5 of them now and they don't seem to toouch the stuff :(
I'd try the nudibranches first anyhow as they WILL eat it .
I wish I had tryed the nudis first as I'm sure if I add them now , they will be gobbled up by the shrimp

[Hangfire]

as well as the b nudibranchs....

I've discovered four so far in my new tank. What kind of nudibranchs are those you mentioned? I'd much rather put something like that in my tank than use a chemical that might damage other stuff in the tank. All I have in the tank so far are three snails and five hermit crabs. The tank has cycled for a little over two weeks, but all the parameters of the water appear good so far. Thanks for posting this krschulz, I was beginning to wonder what I was going to do with these little buggers.

[justinl]

I personally don't recommend buying berghia nudis unless you actually know what to do with it once it has eaten all your aiptasia... and it will, and promptly starve shortly after. You also have to nudi-proof your entire tank so it doesn't get chopped up or stuck in an intake, which is just a pain. There are cases where it's perfectly suitable for using a berghia, but such cases are few and far between.

[Hangfire]

I personally don't recommend buying berghia nudis unless you actually know what to do with it once it has eaten all your aiptasia... and it will, and promptly starve shortly after. You also have to nudi-proof your entire tank so it doesn't get chopped up or stuck in an intake, which is just a pain. There are cases where it's perfectly suitable for using a berghia, but such cases are few and far between.


Yeah, after doing some more research it appears that this little guy only eats aptasia. I only have four or five growing in my tank so I guess he'd be pretty hungry in short order. I'll give the shrimp a shot and see how it goes. Here's hoping they have a good appetite.

[Captainhemo]

If you are only dealing with 4 , I'd just remove the rock(s) from the tank and use boiling water with a turkey baster to deal with them
I'd reccomend blasting them out of the tank just to limit the chance of any tisue contaminating the rest of the tank.
Rinse the rock well with some spare tank water before replacing it.

[Hangfire]

Taking the rocks out of the tank sounds like a real pain. All of them are on different rocks, so it would mean taking out half of the rocks in the tank, and possibly killing all the other great stuff that's living on them - one of them has a great feather worm colony that's really grown in the last few weeks, plus a green sponge that just appeared (or I just spotted). I think I'll leave taking the rocks out as a last resort.

[Captainhemo]

I wasn't suggesting basting the entire rock, just the aptaisia. Put the turkey baster directly over it and let some boiling water deal wit the aptasia then try to suck up all the remains.
Lots of people do this in the tank, I only sugested removing the rock to lessen the chance of spreading any remains around the tank.
If you don't like that idea, you could try njecting them with lemon juice, many ppl have good success with that

[Reefer Rob]

Peppermint Shrimps actually did work for me, but it's hit and miss. I put 3 of them in and never saw them again. They did nothing. A few months later out of frustration I got 3 more and in they went. They too completely dissapeared... for about 2 weeks. I thought great, more money waisted. Then I was looking in the tank one day and I realized I had no Aiptasia. They had done it! :surprise: I've been Aiptasia free for about 4 months now.

[fishytime]

Boiling water or lemon juice in a syringe. You need to be fast and accurate with the syringe as they will quickly retract into the rock when you try and poke them.

[Hangfire]

Lemon juice would hurt nothing else in the tank? If it doesn't, that sounds like a great idea. I do realize that you (Captainhemo) didn't mean to boil the rocks :wink:. I'm just not sure I want to try and pull out most of the rock in my tank. I might try the lemon juice.