Aiptasia Infestation

[rebodi]

My LFS has a big problem with Aiptasia. There are so many that the aiptasia is growing in the sand bed!! Its a 600 gallon "show" tank and I cant even come up with number but every rock is practically covered. To make matters worse the have a gigantic engineer goby who eats every pep in the tank. I offered to help fix the tank but they dont want to dry the rock out. Any ideas on how to tackle the problem? Might be able to get a free tank out of it cause I dont want the money.

 

[Ismellikefish]

1: Move goby to another tank
2: Pure loads of pep shrimp in
3: profit !!!!

 

[Cornelius240]

I'd recommend a buttload of Berghia nudibranchs.

 

[Gdevine]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11905960#post11905960 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Ismellikefish
1: Move goby to another tank
2: Pure loads of pep shrimp in
3: profit !!!!

LMAO! But that's the way to do it. And when the peps are in the tank DO NOT FEED THE TANK and those hungry babies will do one helluva a job!

 

[K' Family Reef]

had aiptasia all over every rock in our 125
and w/ over 200# of LR there was alot of aiptasia in this tank... we added a copperband butterfly and to our amazement in about a week there is not a single aiptasia to be found... dont know how this fish could have eaten them all or what... but this CBB seemed to have gotten every one of them out...

the 50gal fuge
still looks like an aiptasia farm and so does the sump... but as long as they stay out of the main dt then we will be happy - actually intend to leave all the aiptasia in the sump/fuge as an aiptasia filter!

if this is a pet store
am surprised they are having to depend on a customer to help them solve their problems.

regards

 

[snorvich]

CBB are iffy. some eat them, others do not. Berghia are guaranteed. That is all they do, eat aiptasia.

 

[rebodi]

the convict goby is uncatchable and also very large. The fish is about as thick as a #2 montecristo. When I say Infestation I mean INFESTATION. The darn things are every where. I will post a couple of pics on Fri but be prepared. They are killing everything in their tank. If I were to take a guess... I would say on a 50 lb piece of lr there is probably about 6-7inches of non aiptasia. Please help and all suggestions are welcomed. I just have a hard time believing any creature would be able to wipe these buggers out.

Best regards
Ryan

ps... I will post some pics on friday with permission from the owners

 

[Ismellikefish]

Then you might want to go Cornelius's idea and get some Berghia nudibranchs.

Here is a link to reefkeeping.com > make sure to read!

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-01/ac/feature/index.php

 

[realest]

Which LFS is this? I'll make sure I stay away from there. Never heard of a customer trying to solve a LFS's problems.

Haha