Aiptasia wont die?

[cpllongjk]

Over the past year I have been battling a small outbreak of Aiptasia. Only a few. My main display is only 50 gallons so fish that eat Aiptasia are probably out of the equation.

1st Attempt: I started treating the aiptasia by dosing AiptasiaX by RedSea. It took care of the problem for a while but eventually the Aiptasia came back just smaller.

2nd Attempt: I've heard people having good success with a Majano Wand so I bought one and tried it out. This made the problem worse. I now have 2-3x more aiptasia than I started with.

Has anyone had a similar problem/trouble getting rid of Aiptasia? Please let me know what you finally were able to do to eradicate the issue.

Thanks,

Jared

[Fredfish]

Unless you kill every single cell in an aptasia, it will come back.

A matted file fish will fit in a 50 gallon tank.

[Frost_Hydra]

I had a really big Aiptasia outbreak in my 55g tank a while ago. And I had the same issue with using Aiptasia-X, it simply would pop back up in a few weeks. I decided to get a peppermint shrimp to see if it would help. All the Aiptasia was gone overnight. A little bit later the shrimp died to do to unrelated matters, but I haven't had any Aiptasia since then. Its been about 10 months since the peppermint shrimp died too.

I heard that people have different levels of success with peppermint shrimp eating Aiptasia, but id give it a try. And if it doesn't work, at least you got a cool new invert for your system

[RioReefr]

The peppermint shrimp will work. You have to patient though.
The one I got didn't even touch the aipstasia then after about 3 weeks there was no signs of aipstasia and has never come back.
Sadly I got a hawkfish and he ate the pep, but I really liked that shrimp.

[mcgyvr]

I second the peppermint shrimp...
Less "cons" with that vs a filefish from my experience..

A matted filefish certainly works too BUT you really need to return it when the problem is gone as it will either starve or find a new food source that likely ends up being your prized corals..

[RobZilla04]

Another for peppermint shrimp. Had some small spots pop up here and there about 6 months ago. Couple of peppermint shrimp and it was all gone in literally 48 hours.

[soulpatch]

the best but most expensive is berghia nudibranches. They ONLY eat Aiptasia and will reproduce in tank to match the aiptasia issue.

[Anemone]

Originally Posted by mcgyvr

A matted filefish certainly works too BUT you really need to return it when the problem is gone as it will either starve or find a new food source that likely ends up being your prized corals..

IME, and that of a number of other posters on this board, matted filefish eat almost anything fed to the tank and don't "starve" after finishing off the aiptasia. I also haven't had any issues with the filefish going after "prized corals." I currently have both LPS and SPS without issues.

Kevin

[Scubajoe1]

Agree. My filefish ate all mine in the tank...I still have a ton in the overflow but none in the tank. He ate the pulsing Xenia too. Thank god.

[aznflyfisherman]

If the aptisia is easy to get to, just squirt lime juice right in the center, it will dissolved it, cheapiest way, i killed probably a hundred in my tank. They havent came back over 2 yrs now.

[hbrochs]

Matted file fish worked for me, and my tank is 60 gallons.

[scooter31707]

Originally Posted by aznflyfisherman

If the aptisia is easy to get to, just squirt lime juice right in the center, it will dissolved it, cheapiest way, i killed probably a hundred in my tank. They havent came back over 2 yrs now.

I agree, but I use lemon juice instead of lime juice. Peppermint would be my
2 option, but be careful with them. IME, they started nipping/eating my corals once the aiptasia were gone.

[hkgar]

My matted File Fish cleaned up my Majano outbreak 4+ years ago and he is still alive and well.

[gatreef]

I have had good luck with a Copper banded butterfly fish, but not everyone does.

[Jyetman]

Sadly when I had a aptasia infestation I finally had to sell my hawk fish. What took years of hair pulling work with aptasia-x finally was taken care in less then 2 months with 4 pep shrimp. I loved my hawk he had such a personality. The only shrimp I was able to keep was a mean deranged coral bandit shrimp he never touched him.

[WVfishguy]

I let Aiptasia get out of hand in a customer tank. I had to take sections of rock out, place them in a bucket of hot, fresh water, scrub with a stiff brush. Did a few rocks at a time.

When I was through I put a Copperband in and that kept them from coming back. CBBs were easy to keep at the time. I kept a CBB in each marine tank after that.

In FOWLER tanks a Mertons, Pearlscale, or other butterfly works well.

I also used peppermint shrimp, and they worked as well.

I had peppermints breed once in a 38 gallon quarantine tank with a pair of clowns. I was checking in tanks at night with a flashlight and saw dozens of little shrimp eyes staring back at me.

The next morning they were gone. I don't know if the clowns ate them or what.

[Joe0813]

Peppermint shrimp wiped all mine out. I had some huge ones and they still ate them

[devimik]

I had a major aiptasia problem that I let get out of hand in my 90g. I tried Aiptasia X, Majano wand, peppermint shrimp, expensive Berghia Nudibranchs - nothing worked. Well, Aiptsia X works, but not a great solution when you have hundreds of aiptasia.

What did finally work was the filefish. I never saw him eat an aiptasia, but within a few weeks they were all gone. He eats mysis shrimp, LRS reef frenzy, brine shrimp, bloodworms, live blackworms, and even nori. He won't eat flakes, but doesn't bother my soft corals and leathers.