Copper Band Butterfly fish in a small tank.

[Nicholas89]

Ok, so I have a serious aiptasia outbreak in my reef.


Thing is, peppermint shrimp haven't seemed to work.

Injecting them only has gone so far.

I was thinking about trying a baby copper band...

Problem is........my tank is only 20 gallons (high).


The tank is very stable, it doesn't have any fish in it.

It also has been cycled for about 5 months now.

I'm getting a job at a local fish store (starting in about a week or so), and I saw a small one there for sale before I was leaving for a trip to Italy, prior to christmas. I was extremely tempted to buy it, but decided to wait to think things through more, and until after I got home.

Now, I was talking to one of my future co-workers there and he suggested I tried the same thing I was thinking. Buy a baby one, let it do it's thing for a couple months then bring it back to the store.

Is this a completely terrible idea? Or is it do-able?

I figure I can feed the copper band with mysis shrimp, flakes, blood worms, and then allow him an all you can eat buffet of aiptasia.

Also, out of curiosity, my tank has some zoas, something that looks like a small galaxia, hermits, and a few assorted snails. I'd imagine some of those would be prey to the butterfly, but what ones?

Oh, I've got some bristle starfish too. (One huge one, probably 8 inch diameter that was a hitchhiker) Any risk there?

[not_sponsored]

Copperbands are hit and miss as well. I don't think it will harm your polyps or inverts though.

Would it be hard to remove the rock from your system and cure them? Sounds like you don't have too many corals. I did this with a few rocks that were infected bad with aiptasia.

[Nicholas89]

I really want to avoid that, especially considering the entire tank is full of them. I'd pretty much be killing everything (bacteria wise and stuff), and starting a new cycle.

[not_sponsored]

Maybe take the rocks out and just blow torch the aiptasia then rinse and stick em back in.

[Nicholas89]

Not a bad idea...

Hmmmm..

Decisions..

[Nicholas89]

I just ordered some joe's juice off ebay.

I'll give that a try before the copperband.

[snorvich]

copperbands have low survival rate. Not all of them will eat aiptasia. And not all are reef safe.

[mokeyz]

be really careful with Joe's Juice - it can do a lot of damage especially if you are doing a big application. You can try injecting them with boiling water.

[bj32482]

why not take the rocks to the store and let the copper band eat while your at work?

[kar93]

could try peppermints?

[kar93]

Originally posted by 07kar93
could try peppermints?

dint read that youd tried them

[Nicholas89]

This is my plan:


1. Set up spare 10 gallon, fill it about half way with salt water.

2. take all the small rocks out of my main tank, and treat them inside the 10 gallon. (Joe's Juice)

3. treat all the big rocks (3 of them) inside the main tank.

4. Water change

5. Once positive they are all gone, bring small(er) pieces back into main tank.

6. Pray for me tonight.