I have a 24gal nano cube with about 10lbs live rock. Anyways, this live rock contained some aiptasia on it. As im new to reef keeping, i didn't think much of it. Long story short, these buggers started to spread all over. Remedying the situation i stopped at the LFS and picked up "Joe's Juice" This stuff freak'n ROCKS. The box says "works in minutes"...lol they aren't kidding! I watched them do the death tango for about five minutes, until they shrank in little blobs. I was talking to the own of the LFS and he guided me to buy a Peppermint Shrimp to keep the aiptasia down...apparently they eat them. Is this true about this species of shrimp???
aiptasia RIP!!!
- Thread starter triciod
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BristlewormKing
New member
In most cases, the aiptasia will return. Your best longterm investment is to buy some berghia nudibranches. They don't harm any corals, and usually stay outta sight until night. Every tank I have has at least three berghias in there somewhere. On occasion, I even spot a coil of eggs or a baby or two they have produced (which I catch and use for new LR deliveries). The shrimp is also an option, but I think there are some corals or softies they are fond of also (please don't quote me on that - but, I thought I read that somewhere when I first investigated getting rid of the aiptasia). The berghias are small so they are actually able to crawl inside the rock crevices and get to the little aipatsia sprouts.
theop
Active member
I just use kalk paste which is cheap and easy to use. I agree that they will likely come back. I've accepted that in my 12g nano it will be a chronic problem and every couple of weeks I have to go hunt them down and inject any new ones. In a small tank this isn't hard to do but may be cumbersome in a larger setup.
Berghia are hard to find and expensive (~$20+ per animal plus shipping). This is the only place I know of to order them is http://www.berghia.net/ and they are currently not in stock.
There is a LFS here in town which I wish would get some. They have a scary number of aiptasia in their tanks.
Berghia are hard to find and expensive (~$20+ per animal plus shipping). This is the only place I know of to order them is http://www.berghia.net/ and they are currently not in stock.
There is a LFS here in town which I wish would get some. They have a scary number of aiptasia in their tanks.
acidlittle
New member
I tried a pepper shrimp and he didn't touch them, so I guess they are hit or miss, next time (hoping there isn't) I will try the berghia.
MJAnderson
Premium Member
I have 3 pepermints. Never seen them anywhere near my aptasia. My emerald crabs don't seem to like the bubble algae either. I want a refund!!!
I have seen peppermint shrimp eat aptasia to extinction but this typically takes a while (~6 months) because the shrimp would rather eat easier prey, the shimp are small, people only buy a couple of them, and the anenomes are usually numerous. Consequently peppermints won't really start making progress until they run out of other food options (typically abundant in a reef tank). Also, larger anemones are harder to deal with for the shrimp so the largest aptasia will usually not be eaten. So peppermint shrimp are effective preventing aptatisa from taking over, but rarely will completely eliminate them.
Berghia are speciallised to eat the aptasia and so will likely starve to death before eating the last one, thus they will return after the nudibranch dies. This can only be regarded as a permanent control mechanism if you have reproducing population of nudis.
Many butterfly fish, particularly Raccoon Butterflies are the best anenome eaters. If you want to ensure that incoming live rock does not have aptasia, just let a Raccoon Butterfly have a few days with it. This works best with a LFS keeping the butterflies in their liverock tank. But the butterflies will eat coral as well so this is not usually a good solution for the home reef aquarium.
Berghia are speciallised to eat the aptasia and so will likely starve to death before eating the last one, thus they will return after the nudibranch dies. This can only be regarded as a permanent control mechanism if you have reproducing population of nudis.
Many butterfly fish, particularly Raccoon Butterflies are the best anenome eaters. If you want to ensure that incoming live rock does not have aptasia, just let a Raccoon Butterfly have a few days with it. This works best with a LFS keeping the butterflies in their liverock tank. But the butterflies will eat coral as well so this is not usually a good solution for the home reef aquarium.
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BristlewormKing
New member
There are different types of nudibranches - some of which secrete toxins that damage corals (like the blue velvet nudibranch, etc.). However, berghias do not secrete such toxins. I have bought some berghias from saltyunderworld? I think was the name. Try a google search if you are interested in them - price these days is around $15-18 each. However, they start laying coils of eggs before reaching adulthood. When I received mine, there was already a coil of eggs in the shipping bag. A pic of the berghias in one of my tanks is below:
BristlewormKing
New member
In three tanks, the berghia wiped out the aiptasia and I haven't seen the "weed" in those tanks in almost a year. In the other tanks there are still some aiptasia, but mostly because I started removing the berghia and spreading them out to other tanks - basically there are three per tank now. I figured out that if I lowered the berghia population, there would be a balance of the aiptasia and berghia so the nudibranches wouldn't starve to death, but I wouldn't have unsightly aiptasia all over my rocks. Now I can usually see one or two small aiptasia if I look really hard, and they will end up getting eaten within a week of being spotting.
In essence, if you unleash a large number of the berghias in your tank and leave them in there, they will wipe out the aiptasia, but to the point of starving themselves to death. If you pull them out of the tank too soon (which absolutely is impossible to determine), the aipatisa that wasn't consumed will simply repopulate the tank. It is up to the individual to decide which approach to take - I just didn't like the idea of them starving to death simply to make my tanks look nicer.
danieljames
New member
What kind of flow did you berghia keepers have in your displays?
aclos3
New member
Joe's juice certainly does kill the aptasia, but it is tough to find all of them sometimes, and even impossible in a larger tank depending on the level of infestation. In our 125g we had literally thousands of aptasia. We tried all sorts of chemical remedies with no success. My dad was reluctant to get a copperband butterfly fish from things he had read, so he finally bought like 50 peppermint shrimp and all the aptasia were gone within a few weeks. Now, we have a lot of shrimp, but they eat flake food eagerly out of our hands and don't seem to bother anything else in the tank.
BristlewormKing
New member
I have variable flows in different portions of each tank - but only two tanks have a very brisk current. Since they mainly stay in the rocks, they will usually avoid areas that are in the direct path of the water return nozzle(s). The key is to make certain the overflows are screened off or the little suckers will crawl in (I have even found a coil of eggs on the outside of a skimmer before I realized those guys will crawl everywhere when the aiptasia gets too low in the tank).
Cubman777
New member
In case you happen to have a basslet, you may not want to waste money on getting a peppermint shrimp, because it most likely will eat it. Your tank is small enough that you may be able to control the rock anemones with just Joe's Juice. As far as the nudibranches, many people don't have success keeping them alive because they tend to get sucked into power heads/pumps since they're so small. Good luck getting rid of the aiptasia.
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