Aiptasia

[Nutta_Butta]

I had a colony growing all over my tank and until today did not knkow what it was i thought they were feather dusters and through some searching learned they are aiptasia. How can i get rid of these pests in my 24 gal nano cube tank?

 

[lordofthereef]

Is it all on one rock? Easiest way IMO is going to be removing the rock and letting it completely dry out. Aside from that, there are a bunch of remedies with mixed results:

Kalk Paste right on the colony
Reef putty right on the colony
Injecting with various things ranging from kalk (base) to vinegar (acid)
Injecting with "over the counter remedies" such as aiptasia X, sold at the LFS

You can also try peppermint shrimp. Those are hit or miss. I have actually seen a picture of a (large) aiptasia eating a peppermint.

There is also the berghia nudibranch, which I have heard people having great success. One caveat is that you will need a varying number of these guys to actually mow down all aiptasia - dependent on how many aiptasia you have. They are also quite expensive (about $15+ a pop), but can reproduce pretty readily if given ample food. They ONLY eat aiptasia, so they will starve once they get rid of them all. Upon death, they release a toxin into your tank that can wipe everything out pretty fast.

Lastly, there are some fish that have been known to consume it as well, though none that would do well in that size of tank.

 

[jkwinn]

I had aiptasia spreading over a number of rocks in a 90 gal. Bought 3 peppermint shrimp. At first the shrimp hid but one night all of the aiptasia disappeared. It seems like the shrimp all of a sudden ate it all one night. Took about three weeks before the shrimp ate it. I think peppermint shrimp are just very shy when first added to a tank.

 

[joshuabradley1]

I would vote for the peppermint shrimp also. Everyone I've witnessed has eaten aptasia. They were all shy to start like jkwinn mentioned, but they come around.

 

[ColaAddict]

You have a nano, which makes it very easy to reach them and manually kill them. No need to buy anything living. Just get a bottle of aiptasia x, which works 100% of the time. Injecting them with fresh water/hot water/kalk/vinegar also works great.

 

[Nutta_Butta]

Thank you all for your responses. unfortunately it has conquered all of my rock work and is even entering a colony of my green star polyps. I will try the methods of removal as described in the posts above...thank you all again, i appreciate your help.