Aiptasia
- Thread starter lrod21
- Start date
marklugo23
Advanced Reefer
- Location
- Brooklyn/manhattan
get a whole bunch of peppermint shrimp. i ordered about 10 from reef2go, some of it is going away little by little
Aptasia will never go away without braking your tank down.
Aptasia will live in your hoses, sump, overflows, just about anywhere. They will always exist in your tank but u can eliminate them from the display tank.
You can control it in several ways, the fastest and nicest way is by getting a copperband butterfly or a matted filefish.
Since u hardly have corals I would go with either fish, if u plan to add corals go with the butterfly.
U can try alternative ways but u will waste your money and time. U can try juices, paste, zapping, trust me, they will win and u will lose.
Add a natural predator fish and in a month they will be gone.
The peppermind shrimp work but shrimp don't eat the adult aptasia and shrimp prefer waiting for u to feed the tank rather than eating nasty anemones. Shrimp "disappear" as well, u could end up spending more on shrimp then on copperband fish.
Chose your weapon and good luck
Aptasia will live in your hoses, sump, overflows, just about anywhere. They will always exist in your tank but u can eliminate them from the display tank.
You can control it in several ways, the fastest and nicest way is by getting a copperband butterfly or a matted filefish.
Since u hardly have corals I would go with either fish, if u plan to add corals go with the butterfly.
U can try alternative ways but u will waste your money and time. U can try juices, paste, zapping, trust me, they will win and u will lose.
Add a natural predator fish and in a month they will be gone.
The peppermind shrimp work but shrimp don't eat the adult aptasia and shrimp prefer waiting for u to feed the tank rather than eating nasty anemones. Shrimp "disappear" as well, u could end up spending more on shrimp then on copperband fish.
Chose your weapon and good luck
As mentioned above, Aptasia is quite tricky to get rid off. I had a battle with it couple of months ago. I tried everything (i.e. juice, paste) i even ended up removing rocks that have aptasia, but they're always "everywhere". Did tried peppermint shrimp too. Yes they "disappeared" especially when they are small.
The best (that worked for me) is butterfly fish and/or filefish. Now I am aptasia free. Happy, happy!
- Location
- Virginia originally from New York
I got rid of all of mine with peppermint shrimp. I have the shrimp in my sump and my DT.
- Location
- Staten Island
How many do you have? Just a rock or two with them on it, or have they exploded everywhere? If on just a rock or two I would remove the rocks and either burn off the aiptasia, bleach the rocks, or toss them. If you have a large problem them natural predation is the only way to keep them in check, but probably never totally eradicate them.
Copperband butterflies suck. Beautiful fish but just too delicate. I used these predators in the past:
1. an Auriga butterfly - good looking fish that held its own against triggers, eels and angels and it devoured aiptasia.
2. peppermint shrimp - saw them making a dent but didnt last long in my FOWLR tank and seemed to be nipping at my acans in my reef tank.
3. Aiptasia eating nudibranch - put 10 in my 125 gallon FOWLR that was completely infested. The first month I saw no change and thought I threw my money away. After next month or so I could not find a trace of aiptasia in my tank. They even devoured the aiptasia in my overflows. Once they died though the aiptasia came back.
4. Hurricane Sandy - yep a natural disaster is one of the few surefire ways to kill these demons.
I would go with an Auriga again if I had a fish only tank. Matted file fish will eat the aiptasia too but they are not too attractive.
Well that is my rant. There are few organisms on this planet that I despise more than aiptasia. Kill them...kill them all.:eat:
Copperband butterflies suck. Beautiful fish but just too delicate. I used these predators in the past:
1. an Auriga butterfly - good looking fish that held its own against triggers, eels and angels and it devoured aiptasia.
2. peppermint shrimp - saw them making a dent but didnt last long in my FOWLR tank and seemed to be nipping at my acans in my reef tank.
3. Aiptasia eating nudibranch - put 10 in my 125 gallon FOWLR that was completely infested. The first month I saw no change and thought I threw my money away. After next month or so I could not find a trace of aiptasia in my tank. They even devoured the aiptasia in my overflows. Once they died though the aiptasia came back.
4. Hurricane Sandy - yep a natural disaster is one of the few surefire ways to kill these demons.
I would go with an Auriga again if I had a fish only tank. Matted file fish will eat the aiptasia too but they are not too attractive.
Well that is my rant. There are few organisms on this planet that I despise more than aiptasia. Kill them...kill them all.:eat:
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