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Ctepfenhart
10/13/2012, 10:37 AM
I have hundreds of aiptasia. They are taking over my tank! I have put 6 peppermint shrimp in my tank and they don't touch it. I've tried every product I could find with no luck!! I even tried using an insulin needle and injecting with lemon juice! I think I may have been feeding too much but I cut back to feeding one a day. Please help

mike_cmu04
10/13/2012, 10:51 AM
silver scats to eat the small ones and joes juice to kill the large ones. That is the combo that worked for me.

MAVX
10/13/2012, 07:36 PM
Are you sure they were true peppermints?

SushiGirl
10/13/2012, 09:30 PM
Not all peppermints will eat aiptasia. I've only ever had one in more than a dozen over the years that would.

I had a filefish that took care of all of them in one of my tanks 10 years ago. There's a risk they'll eat coral polyps, though.

T Diddy
10/13/2012, 09:52 PM
just get some berghia nudibranches and call it a day. With an infestation like that, you wouldn't ever be able to eradicate all of them even with fish. It is quite possible that the berghias won't finish them off even up to their eventual starvation. Once all the berghias have died/ been traded off, then spot treat any outliers with previously mentioned chemical methods or some kalk paste.

HTH

Fastcroc
10/13/2012, 09:57 PM
Redseas aptasia x worked for me.

belljim
10/13/2012, 10:02 PM
I must be sick cuz I love blasting aptasia with aptasia x. I had a big outbreak and w daily shots of x I have virtually wiped them out.

straycat
10/20/2012, 01:16 PM
I had the same problem, hundreds of Aptasia of all sizes in a 90gal. 24" tank. Sounds simple to just shoot the juice to them but in reality kinda hard in an established tank where they are everywhere including under and behind LR. I tried it all also, nothing worked, to far overgrown. Thought about just tearing the tank down giving up or starting completely over that's how bad it was. One day I seen an add for the Berghia, bought 12 and they just disappeared into the abyss. Got up in the middle of the night just to check on them and I did see a few eating the smaller "weeds", my only hope would be they keep multiplying and rid my tank of the pests. This was not the case. Here's what worked for me, I turned off all lighting and quit feeding for about 2-3 months. I personally watched my Chocolate Star Fish devour most of the Aptasia out of hunger I guess. Fast forward I have been running my MH & T5 system 4-6 hr's a day now for 2 months and I see no sign of the "weeds", all my fish lived (didn't loose one). Yes you will loose most Corals, SPS, etc. but I didn't have to tear down the tank and start completely over. There is no easy way when they get out of hand................

scubakid3
10/21/2012, 05:06 PM
I have found that Aptasia X works best. Depending on the size of your tank, you could get a Copperband Butterflyfish. They will get rid of the Aptasias as well.

fredy free
10/21/2012, 08:39 PM
Red Sea Aiptasia-X Treatment Kit worked great in two of my tanks all Aiptasia killed after two treatments, a third tank I have treated Aiptasia numerous times, its down to six Aiptasia and I treated it again today every time I get one or two less after three weeks when they come back. Don’t know why worked on two out of three tanks, treated all the same. :uzi:

tyler22
10/28/2012, 01:58 PM
Have you tried a copper band butterfly? Mine has almost completely eradicated a population of about 40 or so aptasia in only a month or so

burnah
10/28/2012, 03:00 PM
bristletail filefish. worked great for me, but might eat zoas. other than that, peppermints but as long as they find other food they might not eat the aiptasias...

dartier
10/29/2012, 02:03 PM
I am struggling with the same issue as we speak. Hundreds on Aiptasia on some second hand LR in a 125G.

What I did was to add 6 true peppermint shrimp and then every weekend I launch an assault with DIY Kalk paste. The big ones usually survive and grow back over the week, but the medium ones are often killed outright by the kalk.

What I have noticed is that the peppermints are quick to converge on the wounded aiptasia to feast on the dieing beasts when the lights go out.

With only six shrimp there are too many aiptasia to go around, but in the near future I hope to have them knocked down to the point where the shrimp can start to knock them down on their own.

I would launch more than 1 salvo per week, but taking my lights and covers down is such a pain. Also when each foray can involve 20 - 30 Aiptasia I am mindful of the biologic load I am adding to the tank from the dead bits.

Dennis

implac
10/30/2012, 12:29 PM
I've had luck with Aiptasia-X if I get the end of the syringe down into the oral disc opening and literally fill the little beasties up. If I just let the aiptasia pull the product in themselves they seem to regenerate after a few days, especially if they are situated on a vertical face or slight overhang, allowing the product to slide off.

_shorty_
10/31/2012, 10:47 AM
FYI - I did get needles from the pharmacy.. quite a while back. Dude gave me a wierd look paused for a moment - but then submitted and sold them to me. I don't THINK I look like a heroin adict. No offense to those of you who might be...

I tried that a while back - and lemon juice particles kept clogging up the needle. I gave up on that, and used aptasia-X. It worked great. During my last use of aptasia-X the bottle spilled over. So - without it, several have grown back...

Without any LFS around me that carries it - I got fed up, pulled out the ol' needles and tried the lemon juice again. This time, I folded up a paper towel over a small bowl and filtered the pulp out of the lemon juice... Rang out the paper towel into the bowl - and it worked great. I probably won't spend the time on the aptasia-X any more - however you might be more likely to get the little guys to eat the ap-X rather than poking them and injecting them with a needle - especially if they can pull into a hole in rock.

sunilp
10/31/2012, 03:05 PM
I used one peppermint shrimp and it wiped my entire aptasia population out. I have a 175 gallon tank. I have no idea where the peppermint is at now.

Backline13
11/01/2012, 11:36 AM
I would say Peppermint shrimp would be your cheepest bet buy them till you get ones that eat, when you do you will wake up with a clean tank free of any Aptasia I used three to clean a 75 and was amazed how well and fast they worked, you may have to buy a few and try them but will work in the end, good luck.

Tinpanva
11/01/2012, 04:40 PM
I took a more aggressive approach, i pulled out my rock and fired up my propane torch and baked da bastids. Guarantee not to return. I lost a little of the life on the rock and caused a mini diatoms bloom, but i feel it was worth it.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

victor escobar
11/02/2012, 06:05 AM
For me the best to get ridd off aiptasia was to introduce a Acreichthys tomentosus in the tank, it works very well it takes it time but works. With the big aiptasia I testroy them phisically and the fish eat the left overs

sullyg
11/12/2012, 08:04 AM
Copperband Butterflyfish

Steve Wright2
11/12/2012, 08:16 AM
how large is the tank Ctepfenhart?

Copperband butterfly did a great job for me in a 5ft x 18 x 18 inch set up
they can be tricky fish to get feeding and there is the possibility that it may not adapt to the foods we add and once the Aiptasia are gone , you may be left with a problem feeder

I got lucky and mine will eat frozen, bloodworm was the 1st food it ate, probably becuase it more closely represents the type of creature it may extract from crevices and holes in the rockwork


Aiptasia X has worked for me , but it takes practice to get them properly and IME can worsen the problem whilst your perfecting the technique
and being honest I made my issue worse as a result of my inability to perform this relatively simply task ( I had a number that burped whilst being covered and we all know that means mini aiptasia are just around the corner)

Injecting vinegar has also been reasonably effective for me, but there are always specimens you cannot get to whereas a fish, the shrimp, or the Bergia can get at them

Steve

crazzyreefer
11/12/2012, 11:27 AM
All the remedies in the world will only spread them if they are not completely encapsulated with the calcium liquid . I have found a 100% effective remedy and no one can make money with it so its not promoted, it cheap, easy and with immediate results. Watch some one will sell a crack pipe lighter aimed marketed for aphasia removal.

Remove the infected rock, use a simple propane torch, (I have also used Map Gas and Ox Acc torches, they are just faster) , burn them off until the area is white, it leaves no residue, no washing or scrubbing need after application. If you have zoos or other animals that you want to keep, use a short 2" piece of metal pipe held with vice grips to concentrate the flame. once they are burned, they will not spread. it takes a while to get them to the point that they are cremated. Warning! It also my give you some sadistic satisfaction along the way!!!

Seanthefish
11/12/2012, 12:01 PM
Peppermint shrimp worked for me if they are still smaller

Cmoua
11/12/2012, 12:18 PM
My brother in law once let aiptasia grow in his tank without care and by the time he wanted to add corals in there was no where to put any frags because every square inch was covered in aiptasia. So we went out to buy about 15 Berghia Nudibranches and they cleared his tank out within I'd like to say 2-3 weeks. He then sold all he could catch back to the community for them to use.

Miyagi570
11/12/2012, 12:42 PM
aiptasia x works for me

Miyagi570
11/12/2012, 12:49 PM
Marine Depot sells a Aiptasia Wand. It might be better for the numbers you have in your system http://www.marinedepot.com/Majano_Wand_Aiptasia_Majano_Eliminator_Majano_Aiptasia_Eliminator-PS_Aquatics_LLC-4P1111-FIMIMW-vi.html

xme960
11/15/2012, 12:08 AM
I'm the same problem. Do you guys know where I can get Berghia Nudibranch as cheap as possible?

xme960
11/15/2012, 12:17 AM
I found this Aiptasia eating peppermint shrimp (http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=497+525+3190&pcatid=3190) at Liveaquaria.com

Anyone tried it?

Rapide
11/15/2012, 01:20 AM
I have had great success with Lysmata wurdemanni and some success with Rhynchocinetes durbanensis. Also, we did a test in a LFS with Lysmata kuekenthali by plasing an Aiptasia infested rock in a tank where there was only Lysmata amboinensis' and kuekenthalis in it. The next morning ALL of the Aiptasia were gone!
I haven't got any kuekenthalis yet, but I will get some today after work :)
I also tried with Palaemon elegans, but have not notised any activity on treir behalf. The elegans shrimps did eat some flatworms, but not aiptasia.

Lysmata seticaudata, or the Monaco shrimp (love the name!!) may eat Aiptasia, but I believe they are not as effective as the wurdemanni. A friend of mine breeds them (seticaudata), I have to ask her about that. Would be interesting to know...

Nubibranch may eat Zoanthids, don't they?

trinity1012
11/15/2012, 01:54 AM
I found this Aiptasia eating peppermint shrimp (http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=497+525+3190&pcatid=3190) at Liveaquaria.com

Anyone tried it?

i had close to 100 or more aiptasia,i got 3 peppermint shrinp and now i cant even find a aiptasia.get the shrimp they are worth the problem your having

Rapide
11/15/2012, 02:00 AM
Well, I checked and she said that while she hasn't actually seen the seticaudatas consuming any Aiptasia, they did disappear when the shrimps came. So maybe we can assume that they did spoliate the pest anemones...

Rapide
11/15/2012, 02:09 AM
i had close to 100 or more aiptasia,i got 3 peppermint shrinp and now i cant even find a aiptasia.get the shrimp they are worth the problem your having

But the problem is, that there are many species sold as "Peppermint shrimp".
I'm rather confident the Liveaquaria does know what they are selling, but some store don't know.
I have seen even Lysmata amboinensis been sold as a Peppermint shrimp.

Here is a good article by Ret Talbot on these shrimps.
http://suite101.com/article/peppermint-shrimp-imposters-a42649

mdbannister
12/05/2012, 11:57 PM
I'm for adding a filefish or butterfly. I tried the peppermint shrimp approach with no luck, and aiptasia x gets expensive if you're killing more than a few.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

djroxy
01/01/2013, 05:38 PM
After 40 yrs of experience there is only one way to remove aiptasia. Perseverance and patience!! AiptasiaX !! Inject 20-30 a night..
Then u need to stay on it for a few weeks...don't let it go this far again..worth the effort, but it's very frustrating!! They are stinging and hurting the good guys. Just stay with it till gone. Could take a month of nightly injections, but u can do it!! Marc

Motish
01/02/2013, 05:37 AM
check this out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbk7mA5PuAQ

fredy free
03/10/2013, 02:36 PM
AiptasiaX I am using and have used on three of my tanks two were cured right away the third I have to kill every few weeks sometime the same ones come back sometime new ones. I have two now and I think one is in the rock work I cant see and keeps reproducing. Not a big think its kind of like going hunting every few weeks some day I will get them, maybe. Over a year that I have been killing.

Ron Reefman
03/23/2013, 05:57 PM
check this out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cbk7mA5PuAQ

Lasers are just as slow as injecting with Aiptasi-X and probably less effective. Unless you can burn them down to nothing (and that's not easy with big ones) they will come back. I've had two lasers and they work fine for one or two, but you need to keep after them. With a farm field full of them a laser is useless.

silleb
03/26/2013, 05:00 AM
Peppermint shrimp worked for me. Sometimes you need to lower your feeding so they get hungry enough to eat them. Kinda like asking me to eat a cube steak when you keep putting a t-bone in front of me.

ashish
03/28/2013, 02:03 AM
I have had problems with aiptasia for the past 4 years. The subject is too complex and many people are very quick to give bias advice. Some people will recommend one method or another but it really depends on how bad your tank outbreak is. Aiptasia issue is delicate because if you don't do it right you will probably make it worst. I spend the past 2 years away from my tank (in business) on work and left my tank in the hands of staff and family. They did a good job but no one was going to take care of my aiptasia problems. The pictures is the first time i saw the tank in 10 months. I can honestly believe that no body has had an outbreak like mine; my jaws hit the ground. I had them growing on my clam and corals, overflow, circulation, etc. No one has been away from there tank for 2 years like this and let there aiptasia run wild. I actually went by a lot of folks recommendation regarding aiptasia-X few years ago (Before leaving) when the problem was still managable (but not taken seriously). In the past I've added poor copperband, peppermint shrimp, and everything recommended (but did not work). Like a dummy I thought I could wack all of them in one or two tries with Aip-X. After using aiptasia-X incorrectly the tank became even more infested with aiptasia-X.


So I finally came back to my tank this January with the goal of taking control of my aiptasia problem and ugly tank syndrome. First, I decided to remove the LR that were completely covered (don't try to X the 100% covered LR not worth it). I purchased 8 peppermint shrimps knowing that I probably will be left with 1 or 2 with in month. While people say peppermint shrimp take care of aiptasia ("just drop a few in") is both true and false. Peppermint shrimp will HELP YOU take care of aiptasia but not with out multiple things that have to go smooth. If you have a tank that's heavily stocked with aiptasia or even one's you can see, the peppermint shrimp probably won't eat them. You see Youtube videos of 3 peppermint shrimp killing a aiptasia but that's probably because the shrimps had no food options and where desperate to eat.

So I wait patiently for 2 weeks to see if the peppermint shrimps eat any aiptasia but Nothing happened. So my job was to remove the aiptasia by any means neccessary. I sucking few out with my vaccum hose. scratched them of the clam with a razor blade. I tryed using my 3200gph blasting there faces away. When you have an outbreak like mine theres really no way around it. I bought aiptasia-X and made sure this time I only took care of 20-30 per treatment; ensuring that the entire oral disk was completely covered (this is key). Buy a refill for $34 from marine depot otherwise you will use it sparingly. Note: this entire process was done in over 2-3 months time.

Today, I have had 0 visible aiptasia in my display tank since february. I know there is at least 1 or 2 that I can probably find. I know now that the peppermint shrimp do eat aiptasias (babys only) before I can even see them. I know this for a fact because I cleaned aiptasia from my overflow 3 weeks ago and already seen few growing in there. I also cut down on the frozen foods and removed my sandbed (phosphate factory). I don't have any more algae problems. The same thing that fuels algae fuels aiptasia..

What I did:
1. Remove heavily covered LR pieces
2. Get a lot of peppermint shrimp (they will help take care of babies in step 3)
3. Remove visible aiptasia by any means neccessary (aiptasia-X is best used slowly)
4. Every few weeks take note of where you see aiptasia and use Aip-X to remove few more.
5. Over time you will begin to notice zero aiptasia because the peppermint shrimp will eat
baby aiptasia. These baby aiptasia are so tiny that you won't even know they exist.
6. I have yet to use my large Aiptasia X refill and got by with just a small 2oz bottle.

Good luck and I hope this Helps.


I was so embarrassed to share these pictures on RC but knew if I could take control I would be proud to show these. While my tank looks neglected the parameters where always stable but the tank became a breeding ground for aiptasia as they where being fed frozen food mixed with marine snow daily.
<a href="http://s1324.photobucket.com/user/ashish0584/media/Iphonepictures520_zps40f218b0.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1324.photobucket.com/albums/u613/ashish0584/Iphonepictures520_zps40f218b0.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Iphonepictures520_zps40f218b0.jpg"/></a>
<a href="http://s1324.photobucket.com/user/ashish0584/media/Iphonepictures518_zps6c8add07.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1324.photobucket.com/albums/u613/ashish0584/Iphonepictures518_zps6c8add07.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo Iphonepictures518_zps6c8add07.jpg"/></a>


My tank 1 month after last treatment of aiptasia X
<a href="http://s1324.photobucket.com/user/ashish0584/media/IMG_55311_zpsf0af0971.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1324.photobucket.com/albums/u613/ashish0584/IMG_55311_zpsf0af0971.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo IMG_55311_zpsf0af0971.jpg"/></a>