Aiptasia advice

[Annarae]

I have a LOT of aiptasia to get rid of, a whole lot. Any advice would be greatly appreciated since I am up against large and small specimens that are literally covering every piece of +40lbs of live rock. I've heard of Berghia (Aeolidiella stephanieae) being an excellent cure, does anyone have any experience with them or heavy infestations of Aiptasia?

Thanks guys,

Anna Rae

 

[eengmd]

Bring the rock over to my tank and my copperband will take care of them in minutes. Some peppermint shrimp work well. Berghia also work well but I have heard that they will struggle after all the aiptasia is gone and they are hard to get. Other certain butterfly species are great. I am sure Ade will chime in here on that.

In my opinion Joes juice and that stuff tends not to work as well. I find that after I inject them they will be gone for several weeks but then several tiny new aiptasia grow out.

 

[tchndie]

You can buy aiptasia x. I used it and it worked great. I also bought a peppermint shrimp and haven't had any aiptasia since. Just make sure you by the proper peppermint shrimp. There are 2 kinds. Just ask tell them you want the one that eats aiptasia.

 

[Annarae]

I'm afraid I've been trying the Aiptasia X on another tank and it has only lead to numerous tiny aiptasias that seemed to sprout up as soon as the bigger ones felt threatened.

 

[RUFISHY2]

What size tank do you have? Who's swimming around in there. If you don't have shrimp eaters, i.e. - Triggers, some wrasses, etc., I would go with the peppermints first. If you have enough space certain "reef safe" butterflies are far more effective, i.e. copperband, klein's. They can be difficult to get to feed once the aptasia are gone. (eengmd seems to be a wealth of knowledge on getting them to eat.) If your bioload is low, you can try removing half your rock and cooking it, then switching the rock out after a couple weeks or so.

 

[newguy1233]

I used joes juice and it worked great

 

[mojo10]

Get



Get a Klines butterfly I promise you this will do it...

 

[eengmd]

I'm afraid I've been trying the Aiptasia X on another tank and it has only lead to numerous tiny aiptasias that seemed to sprout up as soon as the bigger ones felt threatened.

I personally found the same thing with both aiptasia X, kalk, and Joes Juice. If the aiptasia is not solidly hit with the chemical, it will release buds that spawn into many new tiny aiptasia later on down the road. If you hit it squarely in the middle they may not get the buds off. I guess I have bad aim or shaky hands some times when I have tried the various chemical methods.

 

[eengmd]

If you have enough space certain "reef safe" butterflies are far more effective, i.e. copperband, klein's. They can be difficult to get to feed once the aptasia are gone. (eengmd seems to be a wealth of knowledge on getting them to eat.)

This is by trial and error with unfortunately more error. I have been able to get my butterfly to eat about 5 different foods but never flakes or pellets. The will eat new life spectrum pellets if ground into homemade frozen food.