Does Aiptasia affect fishes?

[Seek828]

Hi all,

I'm having a lot of trouble fighting Aiptasia ever since I set up my 90G.
I thought I finally got rid of them until I found a huge one coming out of the base of one of my live rocks a bit earlier tonight.
It is the biggest I have seen in my tank. It is almost as wide at an $1 coin (~1inch wide and slightly less than 2 inch long from base to tip)

I have read a lot about how Aiptasia affects reef tanks but most people tend to ignore FO/FOWLR setup and the fishes. :mad:

So does fish get affected by Aiptasia?
For example, does it stings fishes?
I'm guessing it will also eat really little fishes if it gets bigger and bigger?'

Thanks

[michika]

No it dosen't bother them. You can get rid of them by covering them with epoxy, injecting them wtih kalk. paste, or in some cases certain fish will eat the smaller ones.

[digital-audiophile]

Aptasia is a pain in the but... once it gets it it seems to be a constant battle to get rid of them.

I've read of bigger aptasia eating small fish but have never witnessed that myself.

Persoanlly I use the tailored aquatics aptasia killer and it seems to work well, you just need to stay on top of it and zap them as soon as you see them.

People talk of peppermints being an aptasia eater, but once again I have never had any luck with them myself.

I hope this helps a bit?

[Treebeard]

My tank was aiptasia free until I purchased a toadstool from a fellow Canreefer. I don't blame him...I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later. Just when I think I have it eradicated, I find a bunch more hiding under a crevice somewhere. I have a couple of peppermint shrimp but I have no idea if they are helping or not. I have never seen them actually dining on aiptasia so who knows?

[Seek828]

No it dosen't bother them. You can get rid of them by covering them with epoxy, injecting them wtih kalk. paste, or in some cases certain fish will eat the smaller ones.

Well I'm at least glad to hear that it shouldn't be bothering my fish that much.
But this new big one that I just found is just too big its scary.

I gotta get rid of it, even if it mean getting much more smaller one.

I don't have kalk at the moment but i have read a lot of mix comments about lemon juice concentrate.
Does it really work?
anyone tried it before?

[Seek828]

Aptasia is a pain in the but... once it gets it it seems to be a constant battle to get rid of them.

I've read of bigger aptasia eating small fish but have never witnessed that myself.

Persoanlly I use the tailored aquatics aptasia killer and it seems to work well, you just need to stay on top of it and zap them as soon as you see them.

People talk of peppermints being an aptasia eater, but once again I have never had any luck with them myself.

I hope this helps a bit?
Ya thanks for your help.
I heard about the shrimp too but I can't really keep one with a Trigger, can I?

[Seek828]

My tank was aiptasia free until I purchased a toadstool from a fellow Canreefer. I don't blame him...I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later. Just when I think I have it eradicated, I find a bunch more hiding under a crevice somewhere. I have a couple of peppermint shrimp but I have no idea if they are helping or not. I have never seen them actually dining on aiptasia so who knows?
Damn, sorry about your toadstool.
My Aptasia came from two pieces of live rocks that I purchased when I was restarting this 90G tank after a 2 years break.
I used to have around 90lb of live rock with it but they were all dried up during those 2 years so I had to go get new ones hoping to kick start them back.

Well I think it worked, but so did it bring the Aptasia....

[Seek828]

Along the line of controlling Aiptasia with peppermint shrimp, which I don't want to risk keeping with a Trigger, have you guys or anyone have experience with the Copperbanded Butterfly?

There seems to be quite a lot of mix reviews on their willingness to eat Aiptasia as well.

Should I give the butterfly a try since I can't keep a shrimp?
But I heard the Copperbanded is quite a passive one, will it be okay with the Trigger?

Thanks

[DragonBallZ]

Along the line of controlling Aiptasia with peppermint shrimp, which I don't want to risk keeping with a Trigger, have you guys or anyone have experience with the Copperbanded Butterfly?

There seems to be quite a lot of mix reviews on their willingness to eat Aiptasia as well.

Should I give the butterfly a try since I can't keep a shrimp?
But I heard the Copperbanded is quite a passive one, will it be okay with the Trigger?

Thanks

copperband butterflys eat aiptasia like theres no tomorrow.
my tank at one point was overrun with aiptasia and once i threw in a copperband, the next morning 98% of it was gone. not saying that itll work that quick for you but over time the copperband will get them all.

how big is the trigger and what kind is it?

[pluff]

I used a racoon butterfly a few years ago, worked like a charm.. I also herd and read that a longnose butterfly will also eat it....

good luck!!

[RedCoralEdmonton]

ive used all different types of chemical treatments/ biological treatments....and all i have to say is Red Sea Aiptasia-X.......nuff said......seriously for the 15 bucks it costs it does the job....no turning off powerheads or anything......

Steve

[BlueAbyss]

Copperbands tend to have very poor survival rates and might not fare well with the trigger. I've also heard that Longnose Butterflys will eat aiptasia, but again I would worry about how one would fare in a tank with a trigger. I understand that butterflys don't fare overly well with aggressive tankmates.

[FishIsGood2]

I injected boiling water into its body and it worked really well.

[Coincidentally]

I have some aptasia X, if you are around abbotsford I can give you some.

[no_bs]

I second the raccoon. He ate them in our tank.

[Drock169]

pretty much any non-reef safe butterfly will work, auriga butterflies work very well.

[saltwater gal]

The question about Lemon Juice is yes it does work..Just inject it in. they wilt and die...but if you have to do quite a few of them you need to do a water change, Seems to change the water parameters a bit.

[whatcaneyedo]

So does fish get affected by Aiptasia?
For example, does it stings fishes?
I'm guessing it will also eat really little fishes if it gets bigger and bigger?'

Thanks

When I had aptasia I did notice my eel occasionally touching them and twitching away the same way it does when it touches my sebae anemone.

[byee]

I also ran into the same problem with my 120g tank. I bought 6 peppermint shrimps to keep the apthasia under control.

I have not seen any re-occurrence of apthasia since.

[torrid_07]

ive heard of injecting them with calcium. does that work?

[bvlester]

I hunt them down by night with a flashlight and magniying glass so the ones I am finding are so small they kill easy. Joey's joice. If you keep finding more then you have one or more some where in the rock, I had to break up a rock once this rock was known to have this pest on it. Once the rock was broken up ( in 3 larg pieces) I found a bunch more now that they could get out in the open. Every crack an atapsia seemed to start growing. still getting rid of them got 2 last night.

Bill

[fiorano]

i used a copperband. he destroyed aptasia like it was his job and there must be a few in my rocks still cause everyonce in awhile there is some mini ones sprouting. but then we get to play a game where i hold the rock up and he hunts all around for aptasia haha he likes it i think

[DACJ]

I got lots of small aiptasia in the tank which I don't really care about, some of them looks really nice...sort of a good addition to my tank display anyway, and I recently purchased some peppermint shrimp (LFS has already test it with their tank, proven that these DOES eat aiptasia), except we all know they don't show up when there is light, so I have no idea how they are doing with the scavenger hunt.

The only concern I have with them is I have an aiptasia anemone....and I mean it's not small either, this one is ugly looking and the size of it's mouth fully opened is about a nickle size, not that is bothered anything in the fish...but is sure is ugly...

I tried attacking it with my finger or even sharp metal, it seems to survive even after me harrasing it, ( I squeezed it so hard that I think it's guts came out.....if it had any...) Problem is it'll come back, and it has a very bad stink...I use dish washing detergent, and regular hand wash soap to wash my hand 2~3 times, I could not get the smell off my finger tip...it would last at least couple hours long...

[peasofme]

aiptasia sting fish and release toxins like other anenome