Aiptasia and I want them gone!

[TDesaulniers]

I was given some liverock that apparently had some hitchhikers that none of us are too fond of (hence the title). I neglected the issue for a bit and really underestimated these guys. They have started spreading like wildfire. They are coming out of the rockwork everywhere. I have some lps/BTAs and some soft corals in the tank and would love to get rid of these pests. What's the best way to do it?

[dzhuo]

If you only have a few, I would try the general solution with boiling water, kalk paste, lemon juice, etc but since you have a lot, I would look into a peppermint shrimp or Berghia nudibranch. Certain butterflyfish and the Bristle Tails filefish and also known to prey on aiptasia. I would try a peppermint first though.

[pmrossetti]

tank? inhabitants?

[TDesaulniers]

Definitely more then a few..the tank is a 29 gallon with a sixline wrasse, small maroon clownfish and a blue devil damsel. Nothing too fancy. So peppermint shrimp? I heard it can be a hit or miss with them. I'll check out the nudi though.

[Opcn]

6-line will eat the nudis

[forextrader]

Peppermint shrimp... not the fake ones (camelback shrimp). They take their time but they will eat all the aiptasia.

[Captainfester]

Peppermint shrimp... not the fake ones (camelback shrimp). They take their time but they will eat all the aiptasia.

50/50 on this... sometimes a win, other times not so much. for 20 bucks you can pick up a few of these guys and give it a shot.

i would get some aiptasia x and do a little battle. its easy to use, reef safe and works. at least knock the population down a bit.

[bobpiker]

Be careful with Aiptasia X. It wiped out my Xenia completely. It killed the aiptasia but not so reef safe in my opinion. I picked up 3 peppermint shrimps and it took a couple of days for them to get started but they've removed about a dozen aiptasia small nems that I had noticed in my new tank in less than a week, so highly recommended in my opinion.

Bob

[Captainfester]

interesting about the xenia, i have never heard of that. anyone else have any other aiptasia x horror stories?

[TDesaulniers]

So about how many peppermint shrimp? And will pistol shrimp prey on peppermint shrimp? Sixline wrasse?

[anothermineral]

I've tried just about all the remedies out there over the years. What finally worked for me was a copperband and 6 peppermint shrimp in a 210 display. The copperband did the brunt of the work initially and the shrimp keep any stragglers away. I've been Aiptasia free for over a year now. I keep mostly softies and LPS and the copperband never caused them any harm (yet).

[jeffesaurusrex]

+1 on Peppermint Shrimp. I had a few Aiptasia in my 5g when it was set up. Because of the low water volume I wanted to try to eliminate them biologically instead of with a chemical. He waited about 5 days and then took about 4 small ones and a big one out in one night. He's also a really neat character to have around.

Berghias eat only Aptasia, so after it's all gone you'll have to give him to somebody else or he will die. I went with the shrimp because I wanted to keep whatever I got for future control.

[lucky_snapper]

Peppermint shrimp... not the fake ones (camelback shrimp). They take their time but they will eat all the aiptasia.

+1 on the peppermint shrimp the will lay wast to the aiptasia.. They cleaned out my tank and rock farm in just a few days

[lucky_snapper]

Peppermint shrimp... not the fake ones (camelback shrimp). They take their time but they will eat all the aiptasia.

+1 on the peppermint shrimp the will lay wast to the aiptasia.. They cleaned out my tank and rock farm in just a few days

[BlueFyre]

My peppermint shrimp never touched my aiptasia. It was a true peppermint but had no interest in them.

I've used boiling water and lemon juice with some success. I started using aiptasia-X and it works perfectly. I've never had any issues with it harming my corals. My xenia look awesome in fact. I even accidently dropped some right on a zoa. The zoa stayed closed up for a couple days but made a full recovery.

[Hujoweforum]

If its not too many you can always intomb them with two part aquastick puddy

[TDesaulniers]

Well I'll go the natural route for now. Just picked up four peppermints. However, my Sixline Wrasse has became a true hunter and is flanking these shrimp from behind. I am starting to wonder if he's going to pick them off. I really hope not!

[NewbyReefer]

I've always had success with scarlet/red leg hermit crabs. I've gotten LR and Frags off people that had some here and there, but they never spread and always just disappeared after a while.

Hermit Crabs;

Perhaps the best (cheapest, most readily available, easiest to track and remove...) Aiptasia nemesis are a few Hermit Crabs. In particular the more common "Red Legged ("Hairy") Hermit Crab, Clibanarius digueti is an almost-all-the-time reef-safe animal that also eats pest algae. One or two to a tank is all it takes

[jok3rqnk]

I agree i had the same problem... when ahead and bought a pair of peppermint shirmp... and in a peroid of a month got rid of my aptasia......

[psyrob]

I didn't have much hope for peppermint shrimps to tackle my big aiptasia problem, but two in my 60 gallon did the trick within a month....

[Mandragen]

sometimes the best thing you can do about peppermints when purchasing from a LFS is to take in some aptasia and see which ones jump on it. Usually the LFS doesn't mind you feeding the shrimp

[RadReefer]

I love aptaisia X, works great, and I purposely wiped out xenia with it. As long as you shut the flow off before you use it and don't get it all over stuff it shouldn't wipe anything else out. I had to literally smother the xenia with it to get it to do the job. I actually stuck the syringe applicator into a pretty big SPS colony to kill an aptaisia that was hitched on some inner branches, the SPS colony was unaffected.

[NorthReefer]

PP shrimp is what i did. But for bigger aiptasia use aiptasia X. Aiptasia X killing Xenia, cool might inject some of mines with it. The bergha will just disappear good luck finding it when you are aiptasia free.

[banjo kazooie]

I used aiptasia x and it killed 5 large heads on my frogspawn and I bought 5 peppermints and my maroon clown likes to intimidate. So they didn't come out from hiding and eventually passed.

[banjo kazooie]

I have to add though, the aiptasia x had accidently dripped onto these heads. not much dripped but it didnt take much for the frogspawn to die off.