Aiptasia "Worst outbreak ever controlled in 3 months"

I had similar kind of aiptasia infestation. I tried copper band, & then some nudi's...nothing worked.
Finally I was told about Raccoon Butterfly. Believer me, within a month I can hardly find any aiptasia in my system. From thousands to almost 0 in 30 days. I'm amazed!

I'm going to leave the Raccoon in the tank for another month or so to make sure there is no more outbreak & hoping off he goes to another system to clean.
 
That outbreak is actually worse than the one i bought in a 75 gallon tank. they were about an inch apart everywhere, yours are 2x that:bigeyes:
 
MrRyanT said:
A matted filefish wiped out all the aptasia in my tank. You have to watch to make sure it doesn't nip at your LPs though. Here's a link:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+30+2562&pcatid=2562
Click to expand...

I was looking into the matte filefish!! They look great but my fish have become super territorial and I just don't have the heart to put these fish in a death box (unless they are aggresive enough to deal with my clown). There are way to many compatibility issues in a reef especially when dealing with pest problems.... I did buy a juvenile emperor angelfish in january just because I had a need to add a fish; soon as i added him to my DL my clown ran...:lolspin:
 
Another thing to keep in mind when dealing with aiptasia. Less rock = less aiptasia. You give them base rock with millions of holes they will multiple faster. I really did not have as many in my less porous rock. Aiptasia will thrive in areas that are hard for us (and predators) to get to. Like my overflow box gills. They completely vanish once i try to inject them and no predator can get to them inside rocks. As bad as my tank was there was very little outbreak around my 20 lb LR that was covered in mushrooms and toadstool corals. No aiptasia will survive around a anemone's path. I even used my anemone to manually sting rocks covered in aiptasia. This method actually worked but also stung and ****ed my anemone off, he's doing fine now.
 
I'm in the process of using nudibranchs on my outbreak. They have been in there for about 3 weeks now. I'm hoping for results around week 8.
 
Peppermint shrimp - I have yet to see eat one of 1000's of aiptasia that where at close range and monitored. Soon as I added the peppermint shrimp to my DT I was down to 6 instantly. I do think the odds of having a few peppermint shrimps survive long term in a reef tank is highly unlikely. I have had blood fire shrimp and skunk vanish with in 6 months, peppermint shrimp are almost invisible and the best time to spot them is at night. They do a great job of keeping LR free of new aiptasia. I see now why they do the job but they won't touch anything that's visible.. Which is fine since once your aiptasia is manageable your shrimps will take care of the rest. Its also tough finding the peppermint shrimps that will eat aiptasia. I would cut down on your frozen foods aswell as the peppmint shrimp may become dependent on eating just that. It's not cheap buying/replacing/losing peppermint shrimps. I spend $40 on 8 (few weeks later) I have 2. Lucky for me my LFS really has no marine aquarium business so they usually always have them b/c no one in clearfield buys shrimps for $6 a pop..Which is cheap to me
 
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I had very much the same problem in my 200 gallon display and I tried every mechanical means of removal except removing the rock and letting it dry out.

My cure was the purchase of a copper band butterfly fish that ate every single one within a few weeks or so...

This is just one large rock in the mid section of my 7' tank.

i-VXhFH2T-L.jpg
 
Bladez said:
I had very much the same problem in my 200 gallon display and I tried every mechanical means of removal except removing the rock and letting it dry out.

My cure was the purchase of a copper band butterfly fish that ate every single one within a few weeks or so...

This is just one large rock in the mid section of my 7' tank.

i-VXhFH2T-L.jpg
Click to expand...

Your aiptasia problem is pretty bad.. But IMO not that bad.
They are not completely covering the LR; so can easily be target with aiptasia X. You will probably not have to remove the rock. If you want remove a few pieces kill aiptasia in a seperate tank and put them in your sump. They won't multiple fast in your sump without lighting or direct feeding.
Just do a small section at a time (10-20 per treatment). Don't think you can get them all at ones or they will reproduce fast. I'd say your aiptasia problem can be solved but theres a skill in using aiptasia-x. Patients and making sure the entire oral disk is covered and then some. Good luck hope the copperband's work but they really have a track record of not surviving long-term in captivity. I wish they would just leave these delicate species in the reefs.
 
The short story:
I built a house and moved in in august of 08' at that point I wasn't ready to restart my system so I put all of my live rock to a dark sump for around 8 months. In that time it appeared that all the Aiptasia was gone however I restarted my system in early 2009 and within a few months it was clear that what I though was gone was still there only as seedlings. I spent the next 6-8 months trying to kill the F#$%ers using Aiptasia X, injecting them with caulk paste and or boiling water, taking the rock out and torching them, applying super glue over them etc... By this time I had thousands of them covering everything in my 200 gallon peninsula style tank - all you are seeing in the pic is one side of one rock.

About 2 years ago I got desperate and posted a request in the WTB section for a healthy Aiptasia eating CBB. Fortunately a fellow reefer came through and shipped me one for around $100 including the shipping. As I stated within a few weeks every Aiptasia was gone.

I have been pest free (more or less) since I acquired him and he is healthy feeding on a diet of mysis, clam & sheet algae - he is one of my favorite fish.

Highly recommended assuming you get the right specimen.

ashish said:
Your aiptasia problem is pretty bad.. But IMO not that bad.
They are not completely covering the LR; so can easily be target with aiptasia X. You will probably not have to remove the rock. If you want remove a few pieces kill aiptasia in a seperate tank and put them in your sump. They won't multiple fast in your sump without lighting or direct feeding.
Just do a small section at a time (10-20 per treatment). Don't think you can get them all at ones or they will reproduce fast. I'd say your aiptasia problem can be solved but theres a skill in using aiptasia-x. Patients and making sure the entire oral disk is covered and then some. Good luck hope the copperband's work but they really have a track record of not surviving long-term in captivity. I wish they would just leave these delicate species in the reefs.
Click to expand...
 
Bladez said:
About 2 years ago I got desperate and posted a request in the WTB section for a healthy Aiptasia eating CBB. Fortunately a fellow reefer came through and shipped me one for around $100 including the shipping. As I stated within a few weeks every Aiptasia was gone.

I have been pest free (more or less) since I acquired him and he is healthy feeding on a diet of mysis, clam & sheet algae - he is one of my favorite fish.

Highly recommended assuming you get the right specimen.
Click to expand...

And there is the rub. I've had 3 of them and I'm lucky if they survive 2-4 weeks. I also had a very mature Muller Butterfly who ate most of the aiptasia over a couple of months and then starved to death over 3-4 weeks, because I couldn't get it to eat anything but live food. And there were too many other fish in the tank that would out compete the Butterfly for food. They tend to be very slow and deliberate eaters and several of my otherwise peaceful fish go crazy at feeding time.
 
Just found this picture on my phone from January 13.
Check out the clam covered with aiptasia
<a href="http://s1324.photobucket.com/user/ashish0584/media/Iphonepictures817_zps5e738abb.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1324.photobucket.com/albums/u613/ashish0584/Iphonepictures817_zps5e738abb.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Iphonepictures817_zps5e738abb.jpg"/></a>
 
Geezuss guys; That's a ton of Aiptasia!!! I catch peppermint shrimp by the hundreds so I've never had a problem eradicating aiptasia from live rock. I sure wish I could send everyone of you guys with this dilemma 50 or so. I catch between 200-500 in one night at the Port Aransas jetties. Then I just give them away. They mow over aiptasia in no time if you don't over feed your tank.

PortAPeps4-1.jpg
 
SoLiD said:
Geezuss guys; That's a ton of Aiptasia!!! I catch peppermint shrimp by the hundreds so I've never had a problem eradicating aiptasia from live rock. I sure wish I could send everyone of you guys with this dilemma 50 or so. I catch between 200-500 in one night at the Port Aransas jetties. Then I just give them away. They mow over aiptasia in no time if you don't over feed your tank.

PortAPeps4-1.jpg
Click to expand...

hahaha,,At first glance I thought i was looking at aiptasia. Your a nice guy for catching them and giving them away and not charging people
for a disease.lol..
I think you could make a lot of money selling these for cheap instead of the $8+ retail price (which is to much) considering 80% don't last. You can easily sell them for $2 each but will have to box and ship. Still worth it.
 
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I got 8 in feb 13, and now I have 2. These 2 seem like survivers; wonder why the other 6 went to fast. It's almost like I dropped 8 in and there was only 5 the next day...Next time i buy peppermints I think i will put them in the LR section of my filter so they are 100% acclimate.
 
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