Getting rid of Aitapsia infestation
 

Ok, So after battling several problems in my tank, Im up to the last one. Aitapsia, I have a very bad infestation, with several tens of them in the tank.

So my question is, is there a way to get rid of them quickly?

1) I bough 3 peppermint shrimp a week ago, still havent seen any big differences.

2) I cant use a fish since the tank is in fallow time.

3) I can inyect them with any of the products out there, but since there are so so many and I will probably cant see them all, it dosent look like a viable solution.

So is there any other way?

Thanks in advance.

Several tens, three peppermint shrimp, and only one week? Give them some time.

Get more peppermint shrimp and wait. The population prob did not get into the tens in 1 week. The shrimp will eat the small aiptasia first and may not eat the very large ones.

Beware that peppermint shrimp sometimes will attack corals and small anemones of other types-- mine liked to eat Pocillipora and small flower anemones.

Easiest way I have found, get a turkey baster with a small mouth. Get lemon juice. Get as close as you can to the mouth and inject it directly into it. It will start melting away immediately.

An Aiptasia Eating File Fish or a Copperband Butterfly will take care of that problem for you.

I had a big outbreak and got a file fish for the dt and am using aiptasia x for the frag tank. Everyday I go hunting for them and I am getting to the point where there fewer and fewer everyday.

You can try to go the Berghia Nudibranch route, but eradication doesn't happen quickly. Unless you have the $$$ to purchase a ton of them, the Nudibranch need to go through a few egg laying cycles to become really effective:

https://i.imgur.com/OoZ6HNR.jpg

The good thing about the Berghia Nudibranch is that Aiptasia is its sole food source. It eats nothing else, and contains chemicals within itself that actually help the Nudibranch zone in on the Aiptasia.

I purchased mine here:
http://reeftown.com/berghia-nudibranchs

HTH :bigeyes:

Actually I took lemon and vinegar and started injecting. Worked. It will help a lot to eradication alongside the peppermints.

I will keep going for a few days and see the result.

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Kalkwasser paste worked like a charm for me

There are all kinds of ways to kill and control aptasia, and work great if you spot a few or are certain they are not hidden. But most of those solutions will end up in a control outcome; they will be there, but not a problem as long as you keep up with them (keep adding shrimp, killing manually, adding/removing file/coppers as needed).

But to eradicate an infestation, you will need Berghia Nudibranchs.

I bought some weeks ago. Haven't seen them.

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Peppermint shrimp will eat Berghia Nudibranch. So will most Wrasses.

Berghias are nocturnal and it is very common to never see them in your tank again. As stated above, it can take several months for the Berghia's numbers to multiply in order to make any impact. If you have Peppermint shrimp in your tank though, the Berghia have probably become a snack. :hmm2:

manually kill all of the big ones with Joes juice and get more peppermint shrimp. I only have 3 in my 180g but I have never had an infestation. Just a few random ones popping up here and there. Whenever I see one it is gone withing a few days. I suspect they are probably breeding in my overflow, but I just don't feel like dealing with that.

[jpitch] called it right. Kalkwasser paste nails it. I just used it last week to kill one that came on my live rock.

I used a syringe and needle and injected Kalkwasser paste in it. Bye Bye bad guy.

File fish

Well after trying to get rid of the big one. I see a bunch of small ones... This is becoming a pain to control haha.

I don't think the peppermints are doing a great job. But I guess I will have to wait.

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I have heard that there are different peppermint shrimp and that the Caribbean are the best at eating aptasia. I've heard for best results to get them out of Florida. I got mine at a LFS and they keep my tank clean. I've also heard of people putting them in a quarantine tank with a rock full of aptasia and not feeding them. Forcing them to eat the aptasia. Once they eat it all they go into the display trained to eat aptasia.

I understand your tank cant house any fish right now. I had a problem with them as well, I purchased a few peppermint shrimp, a raccoon butterfly (not reef safe) and injected the big ones with boiling lemon juice. I noticed the peppermint shrimp would consume the anemone that I injected and the raccoon took care of all the small ones. But as with everything in this hobby, you find what works for you and you go with it.
Good Luck
Jim

Matted file fish. Your problem will be over.

I got a syringe from Walgreens and filled it with lemon juice. It worked great. Once I injected the lemon juice the were pretty much gone. I did like 5-9 per day cause I was told that lemon juice could have an effect on your Ph, if too much was being used.

Just throwing it out there with the Matted File Fish. I bought two for an outbreak and they ate a single Aiptasia then started eating my LPS, acans specifically. Right now I'm going down the Berghia Nudibranch route.

The problem got worse. Even with the peppermint.

Inyecting them helped but now they are everywhere

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It gets to a point where you need to take a more drastic approach.
Remove those things that they attach to, inject where possible, pull where possible.

Everyone above has great ideas and they work....but when you got rid of them all, you need to inspect the stuff you put in your tank...the LFS is famous for giving out free apastia on rocks or inside the rocks or bottoms.....it's a tuff problem but persistence will pay off...

I've always had good results with a copperband butterfly. They're much prettier than a filefish too. :)