Out of the box thinking on Aiptasia

[Mad Reefer]

I have a 155 that is covered with coral growth from top to bottom with BB that is also covered. I am getting ready to move to a 210. Everything is covered in aiptasia; I have tried everything from chemicals to animals.

There is a whole world of knowledge on this site someone has to have some ideas on fixing this problem.

[Gary Majchrzak]

Obviously there is a predator that most of us are lacking... otherwise the ocean would be littered with Aiptasia.

[gregb]

Get a long pointed rod & grind them off.

[fishfood2581]

peppermint shirmp and copperband butterflys and joes juice

[mcox33]

While they are inflated take a syringe and inject them with kent calcium bottle has a yellow label. It really works. and yes peppermint shimp but unless you plan to buy hundreds of them I don't see them being able to control them,

I would inject them and then get several peppermint shrimps to get the ones you miss,

You will need to make sure you penetrate the stalk of the aptasia though other wise they will just move to another spot in the tank,

[Mad Reefer]

copperband butterflys don't they eat the zoo's and other polyps?

joes juice did it, other products on the market like it. They all worked you just can't do it enough.

[moggyhill]

I would go ahead and cook your rock.

[Pike]

My cbb decimated all the worms in my system, along with most of the vermetid snails. Then it moved on the the aiptasia & wiped it out.

Other critters known to eat aiptasia are behrgia nudibranchs & raccoon butterflies. I would not trust the butterfly in my reef though.

My experience with aiptasia is that it needs zero light to thrive. It feeds from the water column quite effectively. I have cooked hair algae & aiptasia infested rocks & ended up with no algae & white aiptasia.

[Mad Reefer]

A little slow today on the up take what is a cbb?

[moggyhill]

copper band butterfly

[Mad Reefer]

Thanks moggyhill

Since I have BB and very few worms it sounds like I could try CBB, but how are they in a polyp rich environment?

[Pike]

Mine has been well behaved, but then I don't have the smorgasboard of corals that you do. I have caught it "eyeballing" a zoanthid. They haven't shown any signs signs of predation however.

BTW when I mentioned worms I'm referring to featherdusters, christmas trees, spaghettis.... Everything

I have only a few sps's: monti. digis. & a porites. Everything else is LPS, polyps, zoas, & mushrooms

[RobTop]

I had a simalar problem and stumbled on a cure. I was moving and had my tank in buckets in a van while I closed on the sale of my house and the purchace of another. It was nothing like a smooth process and the tank was in buckets on a hot July day for about 10 hours and the water temp got near 90 degrees. I lost quite a bit that day, including the aiptasia. My advise is to be more literal in the "cooking" the rock. None of the coralline was efected and 90% of softies did find. Lost all hard though. Depending on what is on your rock you could try this. I would just add that a good power head washing and some care to recycling might be in order as well.

[FalsePerc]

When you take the rocks out, epoxy over the aiptasia. Then, let the epoxy get covered like coralline and become a part of the rock. Do not remove it under any circumstances. Problem solved.

[wayne in norway]

Epoxy over all the aiptasia ??? Hey, plastic covered rocks like the garden centre!

Berghia verrucicornis (no really sp.) - I saw some for sale in Neptunes in S Denver - if you can't get them closer to home.

[weyoung]

Berghia is the way to go. its the only animal that is sure to get rid of your aitasias. somewhat hard to find and it'll die when all your aiptasia's are gone as its the only thing they eat but they leave no residule so the aitasias dont grow back and it allows you to avoid other more costly or inconvienient methods.

[FalsePerc]

I think it is terribly inconvenient for the slug(s) to be treated as disposable. I am personally against looking at anything's life like this - that it is fine if it dies once your other problems are solved. At very least, make an effort to make sure the slugs go into another aiptasia-infested aquarium once they have exhausted the supply in your aquarium, so they may be passed around, keeping the pest anemones under control.

[Pike]

I agree 100% FalsePerc. My CBB is destined for another tank in my community in order to deal with it's aiptasia problem. My plan is to replace him with a few berghia's since I am already culturing aiptasia in my 'fuge to feed the cbb. He can be fed prepared food, but it's very difficult.

I'm satisfied I'll be able to maintain enough food for my berghias to keep them happy.

[Julio]

CBB have to be trained to eat them i learned this after i introduced mine into my reef tank which won't touch any of them.

[reefrancher]

My CBB was bought for use in an LFS to rid a display tank of aiptasia. He hung out in one of their holding tanks for a couple weeks and ate everything that was put in the tank except for the aiptasias on the rock placed in his tank. When he showed no interest in the aiptasia I bought him and brought him home.

About a month later he started to eat the aiptasia in my tank and now I have none. Gone are the fanworms, too, but that's an acceptable loss in my main tank. He continues to eat whatever I feed everybody else and I notice him picking at rocks from time to time.

Steve

[weyoung]

let me clear something up. i in no way think of aquatic life as disposable. none of us would get very far in this hobby thinking like that but facts are facts. berghias only eat aiptasias and will die if the supply runs out. i am a firm believer that they should be passed along and not just allowed to die. now if anyone has one with nowhere to live, i have two tanks that could use the help plus 5 or 6 friends that could use it too. that should help the little guy grow to a ripe old age.

[moggyhill]

If you have a local reef club they frequently will have one that they pass around.

[cre8or23]

i c there are alot of diff of opinions some r good and others are a little extreme. Last night i read in The encyclopidea for saltwater aquarium, dont quote me on the title, but it said to take an Ellegance coral and turn it upside down and 1 sting from the ellegence the aptaisa should die. I have aptaisa and come to terms with them until i've read that. I know survival rate is low for ellegence but its well worth it if helps other wise my poor little peppermint shrimp are fighting and uphill battle too.

[reefrancher]

A tube anemone's sting is probably as bad or worse than an elegants and easier to keep.

Steve

[cre8or23]

you may be right. I dont know i'll keep ya posted i'm going get an elegants today