Aptaisa eating organisms?

[Reeferon]

So I have an aptaisa problem in my 65 gallon aquarium. i am setting up a 125 gallon aquarium soon.

When i set up the 125 i will be able to comb out any predators/bullies of aptaisa eating organisms. I'll throw the predators in my refugium unitl I take care of the aptaisa problem.

I know of two aptaisa eaters: berghia nudibranchs and copperbanded butterflys.

Are there any other organisms that will eat aptaisa that I can put in my new tank?

 

[snorvich]

copper banded butterfly fish may or may not eat aiptasia. There are other butterfly fish that will but they are not reef safe. Berghia definitely do but no peppermint shrimp with them. Peppermint shrimp may.

 

[Martyn]

Copperband Butterfly (Chelmon rostratus) (Not advised)
Tend not to be hardy they can get stressed out easy and not recover.
For example from tank rearrangements IE: moving rocks around.
They do once established and grown on some eat most sizes of Aiptasia’s and keep them from reappearing

Longnosed Butterfly (Forcipiger flavissimus) (Recommended).
Is a lot more hardy than the Copperband (and corals are safe)and does just as good a job of eating Aiptasia's if not better due to reaching deeper into holes in rocks etc.

Something to bear in mind do not expect to put one of these fish into the aquarium and expect fast results with all the Aiptasia’s being eaten in a short period of time.
It takes time the larger Aiptasia’s tend to get left longer but the smaller ones go faster.
So some aid can be used to speed the removal by manually removing the larger Aiptasia’s

This is from my expearence over many years of keeping these two types of Butterfly fish.
And having my 4 sumps with some live rock infested with aiptasia's.
And any rearing/stock tanks without a Forcipiger flavissimus in it that tank would become infested with Aiptasia's and when stocking that tank and adding an established Forcipiger flavissimus from a different tank it did not take long for the Aiptasia's to be eaten and fully controlled.
1 or 2 Forcipiger flavissimus to each of the 10 tanks.

 

[Martyn]

Stupid Editing, only for the first hour
Updated.

This is from my expearence over many years of Propagating SPS corals and of keeping these two types of Butterfly fish in my Coral farm.
Having my 4 sumps with some live rock infested with aiptasia's.
And any rearing/grow out/stock tanks without a Forcipiger flavissimus in it, then that tank would become infested with Aiptasia's and when stocking that tank and adding an established Forcipiger flavissimus from a different tank it did not take long for the Aiptasia's to be eaten and fully controlled.
1 or 2 Forcipiger flavissimus to each of the 10 tanks dependent on tank size.

 

[iamwhatiam52]

I'de love to get a Longnose, but will it wipe out every worm, mysid, amphipod, and other small critter in my 180? I had a Copperband that did exactly that. I got rid of it because I was afraid it would pick the rock so clean It would starve my mandarins.

 

[twill]

My single peppermint took care of my 20 or so (that I could see) small aiptasia.

 

[reefierone]

im in the same boat man. my 225 is over run i have tried aptaisia x, aptaisia control kalkwaser slurry, and peperment shrimp i really dont want to mess with a butterfly i just got my achilles tang settled in and i dont know what else to do

 

[tquick]

put some berghia in there. Be done with it. This is all they eat and nothing else so you know it will definetley work.

 

[reefierone]

thats just an expensive snack for my six wrasses

 

[MSUvsUM]

i had a ton of aptasia in my 29, and i put a scat in there.... just about all of it was gone in about 2 weeks. My LFS recommended that i keep the fish in there for another 2 weeks, b/c there is some that i don't see that the scat will still try to eat. i had tried peppermint shrimp and joe's juice, and the scat was the best solution.

 

[tquick]

Is it a ruby or green scat?

 

[cwoods8]

C.Declivis (would try any of the tinkeri species) took care of all my aiptasia.....and was quite a model citizen......just took care of all the mini-fanworms.....left my coco alone.....much hardier than a copperband.....

 

[spamreefnew]

a brackish green scat?

 

[StupidsReef]

I have a 225g main display, it turned into a field of aiptasia's shortly after setting it up. Nothing I try'ed worked. Each time I did something they would rebound with daunting number's. I never gave the Berghia a try though. Against my better judgment and knowing the typical outcome, I took the chance at a Copper Banded Butterfly. After much conversation with the LFS, I was informed to try a "new" type of mysid shrimp brand they were carrying, PE. They let me feed the 5 Copper Banded's they had this PE brand mysid shrimp, to my surprize 4 of them ate it like little piggy's. 2 hour's later I chose the one I felt looked overall the best & bought the PE brand mysid.

This fish cleared my tank of aiptasia's, it did take him a few weeks but he did. I've had him now for about 9 months, I go to fellow reefer's home's and try to get their aiptasia's from time to time. He has never eatin anything else as far as frozen food goes other than the PE brand or any other corals. I feed him 2 time's per day along with my other fish, he won't touch Rod's Reef foods or any other type. While I don't suggest buying one, due to there poor survival rate, I can't tell someone not to, Cause I did.`My LFS informed me and pessured me on the risk, kind of grilled me even though I'm a known customer and ask that I bring him back if he didn't eat or started looking thin or ill. I know other reef's in my club have try'd them and did not have success with keeping them alive, but a few of us have. This was JME with the 1 that I have.

 

[reefierone]

very interesting stupid reef

what the heck is a scat?
if your talking about poop im not interested!!!:eek1: :eek1: :eek1:

 

[MSUvsUM]

Yeah, it's a green scat (although it is not green). It will eventually be too big for my tank, but it was something I could use temporarily to get the aptasia numbers down. When I remove it, I will add a couple peppermint shrimp to try and prevent any aptasia from returning.

 

[dendro982]

Anything small dusters safe? Have Christmas tree worms.
Or suitable for a small tanks? 10-20g, nudibranches are already there, no effect so far.

 

[docjay]

I had an aptasia and Majanoe infestation in my 240. There were hundreds in the tank. I tried peppermints and berghia with no success. as a last resort I trained a racoon butterfly to eat them in one of my refugia for about two weeks. When i put him in the main tank. He ate every aptasia and manjanoe in the tank in less than two weeks. Now I just have to get him out so i can put my clams back.

 

[cybrsufr]

IME, The Copperband or even better the Chelmon Marginalis (Australian Copperband) are the best candidates for keeping a tank free of unwanted anemones, Majano and Aptasia. YES they have a very poor survival record and it took me 3 of them before getting one to last more than 3 months.. What I have found IME is that the ones smaller than 3" don't survive well as neither do the ones over 5". It seems the medium sized ones fare the best. The C. Marginalis has a better track record but is also 3x the price of a standard Copperband, going for around $150.00. The Long Nose is OK but IT WILL eventually start picking polyps off your SPS, Clams are at high risk, and worms will be non existent. Raccoon will definitely make very short work of any anemones, however if you have corals in that tank, it WILL decimate them very quickly. I have never tried the Bergia, but have had friends tell me they work great unless you have wrasse's in your tank, if so then they will eat them fairly quickly. Peppermint Shrimp have also worked very well for me in the past. I put three of them in my 75G sump that was loaded with Aptasia and within 30 days they were gone. My only problem I have now is that my Banggai Cards are huge now (close to 4.5" from top of dorsal fin to bottom of ventral fins) and the pair of them have taken a strong liking to peppermints. I put 6 of them in my 180 and within 3 days they were history, nice 40.00 snack for the Banggai's :mad2: . I personally will stick with the Chelmon rostratus or Chelmon Marginalis to control my anemone pests.

 

[Hawk23]

Another butterfly that eats aiptasia is the Klein's butterfly. I believe it was Aquarium Fish International that featured an article about them a few months back. They are a very hardy fish and they are reef safe. The trouble is that they are not the prettiest butterfly and they stay faily small. A local fish store I visit multiple times a week had them and they did eat aiptasia and leave all corals alone. With one you will have to be patient with the eradication process(maybe a couple weeks for bad cases in a moderate size tank), but they can be kept togather in groups of 2 or more. They LFS owner I know that had them kept 3 in a 180 gallon and they did a good job while he had them(eventually sold).