I have a 75 gl. reef tank with a aiptasia outbreak, was thinking of getting s file fish and some peppermint shrimp to see if that helps, some of the rocks are covered with the little things, was really debating about removing the rock to eliminate them and recurring the rock and putting back in the tank looking for some advice on this problem Thanks
Aiptasia issues
- Thread starter frbrd84
- Start date
killinit123
New member
I had the same problem in my 75g spent a small fortune on berghia then decided to stop wsting money bought a file fish he seemed to not do anything bought a bunch of peps the file fish went after them and ate 2 out of the 5 not sure how many are left ive only seen one since.. finally ended up getting a copper-band butterfly.. FWIW my aptasia problem is now for the most part eradicated except for 2 or 3. im not exactly sure if its the copper-band, file fish or pep that are doing it or a combination of them but that is what seemed to work for me lol... but i did have 50+ aptasia at least the only ones that are left are on my return hose coming out of my overflow. good luck!
What he said. I keep a racoon butterfly in a separate tank and move rock in there for aiptasia removal.
fishgate
Active member
Racoon Butterflys are not reef safe. So if you have coral, this is probably not the solution for you.
cloak
New member
I understand that, but the comment and then the follow up just struck me as a little odd. If you have to take the rocks out of the tank to begin with couldn't you just skip the Racoon Butterfly altogether and go another route?
clsanchez77
Member
I had an aptasia outbreak in my old 90 gallon, which was stocked with peppermint shrimp. Peppermint shrimp do not eat aptasia as a primary food source.
My LFS swears by his little filefish, but I have never tried this.
I ridded my tank of aptasia using Beghia nudibrach. It worked in my experience. To assist in speeding it up, I would make a past using kalkwasser power and boiling hot water, suck it up into a turkey injector and inject it into the larger aptasias. Left the smaller ones to the nudibranch.
Some links for reference:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2008/11/breeder
http://www.liveaquaria.com/PIC/article.cfm?aid=295
http://www.inlandaquatics.com/shopping/saltwater/saltwater-aiptasia-control
My LFS swears by his little filefish, but I have never tried this.
I ridded my tank of aptasia using Beghia nudibrach. It worked in my experience. To assist in speeding it up, I would make a past using kalkwasser power and boiling hot water, suck it up into a turkey injector and inject it into the larger aptasias. Left the smaller ones to the nudibranch.
Some links for reference:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2008/11/breeder
http://www.liveaquaria.com/PIC/article.cfm?aid=295
http://www.inlandaquatics.com/shopping/saltwater/saltwater-aiptasia-control
Not sure I'd listen to this guy. He's never had to deal with aiptasia before
:dance: :jester:
fishgate
Active member
Not everyone has Coral (I don't). So for me, this would be a viable solution. But Racoons can also go for invertebrates. So got to be careful!
Captain smoke
New member
Had a outbreak about 3 weeks ago, so I picked up a matted filefish after trying a peppermint that failed. I would say within the last week I've not seen a aiptasia.
I can tell you one thing---I've got the worst aiptasia outbreak of my life directly after nursing the tank (with 4 surviving fish and the corals) through an 8 day snowy power outage---lost fish under the rockwork, lost worms and other inverts, and aiptasia took off like you wouldn't believe. I'm very suspicious that the aiptasia are battening off the dead and decaying matter that gave us tons of nitrate (over 80). That is now down to 60 and falling pretty fast with water changes...
The only reason I'm not cursing the aiptasia, despite the nuisance they are to the corals---is that I'm betting they're sopping up excess nitrate and nastiness and helping uptake the effects of the dieoff. Ultimately they're going to have to go, but if they're helping my tank recover from what it's been through I'm not hating them too much.
The only reason I'm not cursing the aiptasia, despite the nuisance they are to the corals---is that I'm betting they're sopping up excess nitrate and nastiness and helping uptake the effects of the dieoff. Ultimately they're going to have to go, but if they're helping my tank recover from what it's been through I'm not hating them too much.
killinit123
New member
+1 I definitely agree with you on this assumption
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