Need a fish for aptaisia

stravo71

New member
I have started my battle with aptaisia. Tank has been up and running for 2years with no aptaisia. We picked up a couple coral about a month ago. The one is a nice size colony of red blato merlti's. I believe that is where the initial aptaisia came from. I dip all my coral and put them in quarantine just in case. Now I have about 20 of them going. I would rather get a fish that is reef safe than try aptaisia x. I heard mixed reviews on that stuff. I did buy peppermint shrimp just to have them vanish. Any ideas on a reef safe fish that will eradicate these annoying creatures would be appreciated. Thank you
 
Copperband butterfly is the main one that comes to mind but I really wouldn't recommend one. For what it's worth I've always found Aptasia X to work very well.
 
Copperband butterfly is the main one that comes to mind but I really wouldn't recommend one. For what it's worth I've always found Aptasia X to work very well.
I would just be worried the butterfly would nip my very expensive acros and other sps. I've never had to use aptaisia x. I was told at my lfs it was junk. Any other recommendations on how to kill them
 
I've had two copper bands that starved while not eating my aiptasia infestation. So I wouldn't recommend that fish to anybody although I'm sure everyone else would have better luck with two separate copper bands..

I thought the same with my peppermint shrimp, after several weeks of being in my display I never seen them. I decided to use a red LED and look into my tank at like 2-3am and seen two of them picking at aiptasia. They are probably still in your tank but are extremely good at hiding and the fact they are nocturnal helps you not seeing them. There may also be plenty of aiptasia behind the rock work where they don't want to venture away from their hangout.
 
I would just be worried the butterfly would nip my very expensive acros and other sps. I've never had to use aptaisia x. I was told at my lfs it was junk. Any other recommendations on how to kill them

Well I can guarantee that Aptasia X has worked for me. Sounds like you need to get onto solving this quickly before they multiply even more. The only other treatments I've seen is lemon juice which is useless and electric shock which worked really well but not sure if you can even buy the tool to do it, think it was home made!!
 
I been trying to get rid of a few with boiling RO water by blasting them with it then sucking them into the syringe. So far so good but I can't say how well it will work as it's the first time I have tried this and it's still early days. I also have the rock in a tank on its own so I'm not bothered about salinity or heat changes. It's free so I'm going to see how well it works.
 
I been trying to get rid of a few with boiling RO water by blasting them with it then sucking them into the syringe. So far so good but I can't say how well it will work as it's the first time I have tried this and it's still early days. I also have the rock in a tank on its own so I'm not bothered about salinity or heat changes. It's free so I'm going to see how well it works.
Only ptoblem I would have doing that is the coral that are encrusted to the rocks
 
There is a laser light that works for zapping them that I thought was cool. If you google it you can find it. I'm sure it's pricy but if you have enough of them might be worth the investment.

Some fish as well as the shrimp are hit and miss, lemon juice is useless. I still use Joe's Juice and it works, but if you have them really bad might look into the laser.
 
I have used Aptasia -X multiple times with great success. I have heard that with the Copperbands, the Australia species is more probable to hunt for the Aptasia. I have also read that the Filefish is the top dog, but that fish is VERY hard to keep and is left for the Expert Reefer.
 
Chelmons eat worms, not polyps or anemones. I had several of them and they never went after anything but worms (killed all my feather duster worms). They never even looked at polyps or the expanded Aptasia in the tank. They only nipped at some of the retracted Aptasia whose limp tentacles they may have thought to be worms, though that hardly affected the Aptasia population in the tank.

The fish of choice might be a Chaetodon kleinii - at least that was the one everyone in Germany used to get Aptasia under control, but I never tried it mayself.

The best bet are IMO peppermint shrimp, especially if you have mainly SPS (they may harass LPS and anemones by trying to steal their food). Peppermint shrimp have the advantage that they can survive without Aptasia and therefore prevent a flare-up when some are introduced with new rocks or corals. Also they are easy to get and cheap.
If you get two or more they will also regularly spawn and produce plankton food for your LPS (the LPS's revenge for the harrassment).

Berghia nudibranches are the safest bet as they eat nothing but Aptasia. But for exactely this reason they will starve to death as soon as they have taken out the last Aptasia and your tank will be unprotected again. They are also a bit more difficult to get and cost more than peppermint shrimp.
 
in my experience I threw everything at them a copperband, a matted filefish and some peppermints. Also a syringe filled with vinegar. Every other day I would try to melt the biggest ones with the vinegar and hope that in their weakened.state one of the mentioned animals would take care of the rest.
But I.think the most important thing was time. Didn't really see any dramatic changes in the aptasia population, but it's now 4 months later and I have no adult aptasia and very infrequently see a little pop up. Who exactly is taking them out, I have no idea. But I think enjoy having both fish and peppermints in the tank regardless of their aptasia eating ability
 
To add to the anecdotes, aptaisia-X has worked well for me. I have killed 5-6 lone aptaisia and they have not returned or spawned anything new. This has been over a period of at least a month, so plenty of time to see if it didn't work. Another method that hasn't been mentioned above is smearing a kalk paste over them. Nothing bad in your tank and a contained method of removal before the aptaisia release their little buds/babies (there's a name for them but I forget it right now).
 
Matted file fish works for me.

This though I think mine might have ate my zoas I never saw him pick at anything but after about 6 months they started disappearing fast and I have none left now. But thw fish hasn't messed with anything else and is a cool fish to watch
 
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