Aipstia Outbreak!

[samdaman]

So I went on a 3 day vacation this past week and came home today.. and I checked out my fishtank and it looked good just saw some white stuff on walls so I decided to run my magfloat through it. then i looked closer and saw that they where baby aipstias!!! And now they are all over the place!! Any advice????

[Tuscaquatics]

Get a few peppermint shrimp. They will eat them up, especially when the aiptasia are small.

[Grebex11]

I saw my lfs using something that gets rid of them in 2 seconds. I couldn't tell exactly what it was. It came in a tube, as soon as he touched the aiptasia they melted instantly and disappeared. It was crazy, never seen it before. He was using it in a reef tank, so it must be fine for the tank.

[Tuscaquatics]

I saw my lfs using something that gets rid of them in 2 seconds. I couldn't tell exactly what it was. It came in a tube, as soon as he touched the aiptasia they melted instantly and disappeared. It was crazy, never seen it before. He was using it in a reef tank, so it must be fine for the tank.

It's probably Aiptasia-X. I have used it before, and it works as advertised. But I've found that if you're dealing with a ton of them, peppermint shrimp will do away with them much better.

[Grebex11]

Yup, I think that was it. Just did a quick review, the aiptasia thinks it is food and eats it. It is actually an adhesive and causes the aip to implode haha. Which is exactly what it looks like.

[Tuscaquatics]

You can also squirt them with lemon juice, boiling water, or a paste of pickling lime. They all will kill them. This works best when they're big, though. When you have a ton of little ones all over the place, and squirting each and every one isn't as feasible, you might want to look into predators.

Copper-banded butterfly fish will eat the hell out of them. But they are one of the hardest fish to keep, and also nip at corals.

Berghia nudibranchs also eat them, but I think that's all they eat, and will die once they're gone.

That brings us to peppermint shrimp, which won't eat them 100% of the time. But they will eat other detritus and stuff if they don't take to the aiptasia. And they won't bother any of your corals or other inverts or fish.

[samdaman]

You can also squirt them with lemon juice, boiling water, or a paste of pickling lime. They all will kill them. This works best when they're big, though. When you have a ton of little ones all over the place, and squirting each and every one isn't as feasible, you might want to look into predators.

Copper-banded butterfly fish will eat the hell out of them. But they are one of the hardest fish to keep, and also nip at corals.

Berghia nudibranchs also eat them, but I think that's all they eat, and will die once they're gone.

That brings us to peppermint shrimp, which won't eat them 100% of the time. But they will eat other detritus and stuff if they don't take to the aiptasia. And they won't bother any of your corals or other inverts or fish.


But i didnt know they where there and i scraped them off the glass. I dont know where they are now! Can the shrimp still find em, they where super small like a this star *