Never thought I'd say this...

[asylumdown]

But I think I might have actually won the war against aiptasia. I'm feeling an inappropriate amount of glee over this.

I went to such crazy lengths to prevent getting aiptasia in this tank because of how utterly and completely they ruined my last one. I spent probably 3 grand trying to get them out of my old 90 gallon, and for my efforts I wound up with a tank that was so infested you couldn't see the rock anymore, easily 10,000 plus anemones.

When the first one popped up in this tank I thought I acted swiftly and aggressively enough to nip the problem in the bud, but it was in the sand, and by the time I saw it, it must have walked itself half way across the tank, leaving little copies of itself as it went. By the start of fall, I probably had over 1000 aiptasia, with some rocks starting to look just like the rock in my old tank.

Instead of wasting time or money on any of the chemical cures like I did last time, I just went straight to the Berghia. They didn't work in my 90 gallon, but that wasn't the most stable of systems. I ordered 20 from Salty Underground and they arrived on November 16th. They went in, and disappeared. I thought they must have all either died or been eaten as the aiptasia problem kept getting worse and worse until right around christmas (I think I even posted on here saying they were a waste of money!), when all of the sudden I woke up and noticed that the mother of a whole aiptasia nest that was stinging an encrusting SPS that came on my rock had vanished. Then the next day, two of her babies disappeared. Within a week the face of that rock was clear of aiptasia. Then on new years day I found several utterly tiny, baby berghias in my sump, so they're clearly successfully breeding. Now I can't shine a light in my tank at night without spotting 3 or 4 of the nudibranchs (I counted 7 big fat ones a few days ago), and every day it seems like another 10% of the anemones disappear. I'm going to have to start giving them away soon!

This is the most satisfying thing that's ever happened to my tank, by a wide margin.

[Mike-fish]

congrats on getting a handle on the little buggers. for me i was in the same predicament but 2L of lemon juice plus a copperband seal there fate

[Proteus]

Nice. Never had luck with bergia. I bought 4 peppermint shrimp that took care of them. Over the last 4 months I think I've had 3 aptasia which I used boiling viniger in a syringe.

[lastlight]

It's so awesome when a plan against them works out. I think it's pretty rare actually. Peppermints and filefish never worked in my 400 but my 2 peppermints now demolished mine. Now I buy frags with aiptasia on them without worry. The next day they're already eaten. Congrats!

[jus68]

Congrats on your success! I was quite discouraged when Aptasia took over my previous tank. I'm ultra cautious now when introducing corals in my current system.

I have a question: Does all of the above (nudi, peppermint, lemon juice) work on killing off Mojanos?

[riceboy]

Lol I was in the same boat, had probably hundreds in my tank. So I got fed up, went out and bought 8x4l bottles of vinegar and soaked all my rocks in it for 2 days. Killed everything including the aiptasia. It was satisfying to see a tank with no aiptasia, for now lol.

[Dearth]

Congrats on destroying the scourge of the SW world

[Foxface]

I had the same problem last year, bought a file fish and he took care of all of them!

[riceboy]

I have a question since all your aptasia is dead will all your berghia nudi die? And what do you plan on doing to prevent it from happening again. I'm scared of getting a frag and poof I end up with aiptasia again. I have tried peppermints before but they always die in a day to make any difference.

[lastlight]

My peppermints are my only cleanup crew so they get plenty to eat. I'm pretty sure if they both died I'd start to see aiptasia again. I personally believe you can't ever get every last one but so far so good.