aptasia suggestions?

+1
Copper bands can be difficult fish and they need a fairly large tank. I'd look elsewhere first.
Injecting them with acid is very popular, and I've had good luck smothering them with a thick paste of pickling lime (with caution, it can burn people too).

Do you just have one or two, or are you already infested?
 
You're the aptasia master, why you asking us?

:lol:

Depends on how many you have. Just a few and aptasia X or something similar works just fine. If you have plague of them, then a biological control is likely required - caveats about unpredictable eating habits not with standing.
 
I recently removed a rock and dipped with vinegar. I would not suggest a copperband, they are time bombs unless you put in lots and lots of time/ care to keep it alive and eating.
 
there's multiple products for removing aips, usually by injection. very difficult to get 'em all that way, at least quickly. if you want to try the 'live' route, there are nudis (abit of a pita to work with, and often difficult to obtain) or leatherjackets ( filefish).

leatherjackets are prob'ly the most likely of the forum suggested fish to do the job. most other 'aip eaters' aren't, really, or gained the rep mistakenly.
 
Also if the tanks big enough Red Sea Racoon Butterfly.

Matted File Fish I've got one and it will eat the little ones but not huge ones.

For the Huge ones I use Red Sea Aiptasia X Works great IF you follow the directions.
 
If its possible, take the rock out and put a lighter to the affected area. There is even some personal satisfaction this way.
 
I've had good luck with peppermint shrimp to get rid of them. Although my goby has seemed to grow a taste for them. They usually have enough time to clear the aips before they molt and he enjoys some soft shell shrimp.
 
The problem with the peppermint shrimp is after the aiptasia are gone, they will eat fish food but many of them go rogue on corals.
 
I had a few here and there and added two peppermint shrimp , and they took care of them and I have not seen any pop up anywhere.

And I never had an issue with them going after my corals .. Are you sure your not mistaking them for camel backs?
 
username in use said:
Pest control utilizing livestock is not the greatest route. You may add something that chooses not to do what you want our causes other problems.
Click to expand...

Assuming you prefer not to use the natural way............ May I suggest this option it works also if you only have a few and I have used it...... Napalm them.

2004 Post:
OK, here is my sure fire way, 100% success rate, never to return again method.

Use a saturated solution of Sodium Hydroxide (Drain Away, Draino, Red Lye, whatever you like to call it) and water. Using a syringe, squirt about 0.5 mL into the mouth of each aiptasia. This will kill even the stubborn foot tissue.

I initially used kalk paste like pies, by found that the success rate wasn't that great. Sodium Hydroxide is much more soluble than Calcium Hydroxide, and is more alkaline, completely nuking the aiptasia.

Again don't dose too much at one time. It is not harmful to your reef, unless you directly squirt it onto corals. Just a warning that Sodium Hydroxide will cause sever chemical burns if handled, you can tell if you have it on your hands 'cause they will feel "soapy" and slippery. If you feel your hands becoming slippery, wash with a LOT of cold water. Preferably wear gloves when handling.

As dangerous as the chemical sounds, it is really quite safe for your reef.

Draino is surprisingly pure sodium hydroxide, and is really no more dangerous to your tank than calcium hydroxide (kalk). Any tank with a reasonable alkalinity (greater than 2.6) should have no problems adding it. The hydroxide ion reacts relativly quickly with dissolved carbon dioxide producing, there are also other mechanisms for the neutralisation of the free hydroxide. Which reaction is most significant is determined by the pH.

2(OH)- + 2CO2 ---> H20 + 2(CO3)2-

The only difference between this and the kalk method is the spectator ion (Ca2+ as opposed to Na+).
Kalk will do the same thing to your hand as sodium hydroxide, at a much much slower rate.

If anything this method is easier on the fish, I had problems with fish eating, or trying to eat the white kalk paste. I for one wouldn't like a mouth full of kalk. The sodium hydroxide method is much safer in that it is completely soluble, such that any solution which doesn't make it into the aiptasia, is quikly netralised by surrounding water by the above reaction, and no solid remains to be eaten by fish.
 
for every recommendation on a livestock route you'll read based on a poster's positive experience, there's at least another who had nothing happen, and ended up w/ an extra/another critter. sometimes one they only bought because of it's hoped for utility. whatever you do get (if you decide to go that route), just be aware you may have to remove it in the future. (anything that finds a stinging aip palatable is likely to also find more mildly stinging polyps the same).

camel backs,peppermints, cleaners, and most other shrimp will at the least pester corals for any food that lands on them at feeding time. the only place i'd personally put any shrimp in any future setup would be the sump, as egg producers for the DT, heh.

will they be a major issue in every tank ? no.

no other aquarist's experience w/ a particular individual fish or invert is guaranteed to predict your own ;)

i've sold plenty of copperbands, racoons, shrimp to folks for aip predation. i'd say the results were a 50/50 split. (based on customer's feedback).

if someone else had a 90% success rate-it doesn't mean that either of us can conclude the other's wrong ;) (and i'm not saying that anyone in this thread is wrong)


one aspect of aip reproduction that hasn't been touched on here yet, and is just as important, is making sure you limit the food available for the aiptasias to begin with. they can obtain nutrients from food particles, as well as directly from the water column, and they can reproduce incredibly fast.

absolutely pristine water quality and feeding management goes a looong way towards eliminating them, and a large or growing population is a sure sign of over feeding of some sort, on a regular basis ;) one flake or pellet that hits an aip can be considered worth dozens more in a very short time.

i've placed lr w/ aiptasias (as most have, unwittingly or not) into every tank i've ever owned over the yrs-never have they survived long term-they're usually all gone w/in 6 months after setup. i've never been able to understand how they get to nuisance proportions in aquarist's tanks to begin with, when it's so relatively easy to starve 'em into oblivion from the get go.

a mix of the methods proposed in this thread is probably the best overall approach for most folks.

fwiw :)
 
Last edited:
if you say so. my fish and corals have never complained. quite the opposite. please don't put words in my mouth.

there's no secret to properly feeding a system w/out providing for nuisance critter nutrition. many folks succeed in doing so. you think every reef tank has or had a problem w/ aips reproducing? i'll practically guarantee you that any tank w/ lr has had aips introduced to it, yet not all have aips down the line ;-p
 
LOL I wasn't putting words in your mouth, they came out of mine when I read your post. It most certainly is MY Opinion! I'd rather have a happy well fed tank both fish and corals and have to kill a few aiptasia. Since I got my matted file fish I don't any longer have to use Aiptasia X unless it's a really big one that I missed or that the MFF missed.

To each his own I suppose.
 
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