Aptasia control options

I had a big aptasia problem and used File fish, copperbanded and aptasia wand. I have none now. Not sure what "laser" you are talking about. The club does not have any-thing besides par-meters. If you ever make it to Des Moines, I would lend you mine.

 

I have used kalk paste, similar to a lemon juice injection. I also smear a dab over the aptasia for good measure. I would consider it to be moderately successful, but I don't know how many can be treated in one setting before the pH raises too much. I've never had to treat more than one at a time.

 

I used aptaisia-x and it worked well. peppermint shrimp were hit and miss. I have a bottle of aptaisia-x that I just opened in the spring if you want it.

 

I am following along. I can't get rid of these dang things.

 

I tried the Berghia Nudibranches but did not notice any sucess other than it successfully parted $100 from my wallet. (I think thats what they costed me) I have also tried peppermint shrimps but they dont seem to make it through the night with my serpent star lurking in the weeds. Filefish and butterfly may have to be the next option. I have thought about using Aptasia-X as well.

 

i take viniger and shoot it into their mouth a few toimes and they die

 

I used the aiptasia x. It worked great!

 

We have several aiptasia as well.  We used the Aiptasia X and it seemed to work.....until several days later, it popped back in the same spot.  We treated it again, and it seems to be gone...but now we have a few more that we need to treat.  So not sure why we're having to treat them twice (or we'll be on the 3rd time for one of them) but just keep an eye out for it coming back.

 

Here's my honest opinion:

Aiptasia is just one of those things that you have to learn to live with and control. I don't care how careful you are, unless you are really, really lucky you will eventually get them in your tank. Once you have them, they are virtually impossible to get rid of. You may think you've eradicated them but there will still be one or two somewhere in the system that have survived and will eventually spread again.

I think if you come to terms with that, you'll be a lot better off in the long run.

Products like Aiptasia X and the wands, to a good job for ones that are out in the open, but they don't do anything to kill the ones that hard hidden all over the tank.

Natural predation is the better solution. For that there are several options.

1) Berghia Nudibranchs. These are very effective if you start with enough in your tank so that the population can take hold and grow. However, they are VERY expensive and it can take a long, long time (6+ months) for the population to get big enough to clean up a tank. When the population does eventually get big enough, it will appear that the almost clean out a tank over night. They are amazing little creatures, but even they won't get every aiptasia, and once they all starve, those aiptasia that managed to hide somewhere (sump, overlfow, refugium, etc) will eventually spawn a whole new population.

2) Peppermint Shrimp. These are cheap, but they are hit and miss. Some people swear by them, I've never had any luck with them myself.

3) Fish (copperband butterflies, tahitian butterflies, etc). This is a good but option as these fish can wipe out aiptasia quickly, but if that's the only think that the fish will eat, it may end up starving. I had great luck with a Copperband, but they are very hard to feed. Once the aiptasia was gone, the copperband didn't last long. I've heard that Tahitians are easier to keep, so I'd probably go that route.

Hope that helps.

 

Do these sting corals and kill them. It seems that my corals are not happy whern they get touched by one?

 

Yes, you want to control them for sure. If they grow out of control they can have a very negative impact on a tank.

 

ok crap. So i guess what is the best way you would recomend i controll these? i have a ton and some of them are pretty large and i have heard that shrimp will not touch these.

 

Are the Majanos or Aiptasia? I'm not sure about Majanos, but see my post above about Aiptasia control.

 

I don't know. What is the difference?

 

I'll defer to someone else to answer that. I've never had Majano's so I can't describe the differences.

 

Majanos almost look like a baby bta. Aptasia grow long stalks and tentacles.

 

I sometimes use some reef putty and stick a frag plug in the hole they are coming out of.

 

Does any local stores have a tahatian butterfly fish or do you have to order from live aquaria or such?