HELP!! Overrun by Aiptasia

[sue_ot]

I have always had a problem with aiptasia, which I have tried to keep under control with Kalkwasser or by injecting with acid. I just came back from vacation, and found that my tank is over run with them (there are hundreds of them). Unfortunately, they are the only thing that thrived in my absence. Many of my fish didn't survive my friend's care. The only ones that remain are a clown, engineer gobie, and a budha cardinalfish.

Desperate time call for desparate measures, and this seems to be a good time to do whatever I can to get rid of these pests. The catch is, I have several kinds of coral, disk, mushrooms, polyps, hammer, cabbage, pipeorgan, etc, that I don't want to lose, as well as snails, starfish, crabs etc etc. At this point, I am willing to take out any rock that coral isn't attached to and treat it with something to get rid of the Aiptasia, but what? Is there anyway I can treat it and not lose the coraline algea? And what do I do about the live sand and the rock that has coral attached?

HELP!! Any advice you can offer is great.

 

[jarhead]

Here's what has worked for me...
Aiptasia treatment

 

[robbinson]

Try adding a bunch of peppermint shrimp. Several years ago I had a significant infestation in my 120g reef - I added 8 peppermint shrimp and the infestation was completely gone in 3 weeks.

 

[Nelliereefster]

I second the peppermint shrimp idea -check out reeftopia, they have great bulk buy prices and the shrimp are pretty hardy

 

[jarhead]

I have read that not all peppermint shrimps will eat them and they will not touch the bigger aiptasias. I guess it's always worth a shot.

 

[Lady Godiva]

I have read that not all peppermint shrimps will eat them and they will not touch the bigger aiptasias

I've had great success with my "genuine" peppermint shrimp.

Although it's reasonable to assume that not all peppermint shrimp will take to eating the aptasia, I think some of the failure rate may be associated with hobbiests who obtain a like species called the camel shrimp.

This article talks about how to distinguish between the two.

http://www.reefs.org/library/article/hopkins_redfield.html

Good Luck Sue

Karen

 

[SPC]

Posted by Lady:

I've had great success with my "genuine" peppermint shrimp.

Although it's reasonable to assume that not all peppermint shrimp will take to eating the aptasia, I think some of the failure rate may be associated with hobbiests who obtain a like species called the camel shrimp.

-I too have had great success with pep's eating aptasia.
I, like Nellie, purchase my shrimp from Reeftopia so I can only presume that they supply the correct ones.

 

[Reefguide]

Lady Godiva is right on ! Make sure you don't buy camel shrimps. Very similar but will not eat the aptasias and will reak havock in your tank.

 

[K77]

I have read that not all peppermint shrimps will eat them and they will not touch the bigger aiptasias

I've had great success with my "genuine" peppermint shrimp.

Although it's reasonable to assume that not all peppermint shrimp will
Karen

They are finicky aiptasia eaters at best, and they do tend to stick with juvenile aiptasias only. They are definitely oportunistic! In fact, I had two that were *absolutely not* camels that destroyed several inhabitants of my tank once they got older/larger before I could catch them. I've had a total of about 8 of them over the last few years for cleanup, and overall I've had much better luck with a juvi Klein's butterfly for aiptasia removal.