Cant deal with aiptasia anymore

Notsolostfish · Nov 20, 2023

My tank is 4 months old, doing great. Its just im tired of using f aiptasia, i see 2-3 aiptasia every week pops up everywhere. I try to get them but some places have been hell. I have a red line wrasse. I cant get berghia, and i heard peppermint shrimp will eat my acans. I dont know what to do.

DanTheReefer · Nov 20, 2023

Can try Berghia Nudis for biological control and F Aiptasia for you to chip in

chipchipbro · Nov 20, 2023

i have a tank bred filefish and he doesnt touch any coral. Not sure, maybe if i had scolys or trachys maybe.
i have chalice, favia, torches etc and he doesnt bither any coral.. also acro polyps.

maybe worth a try.. i am aiptasia free almost now..

flashsmith · Nov 20, 2023

In my opinion the only tried and true method that has ever worked long term for me was kleins butterfly fish. I have 3 and they all devour it when it pops up. Once you have them you have them forever. They're more than likely already in your plumbing and other areas you can't get to and will just keep respawning no matter how many you treat. You have three options. Live with them and they'll eventually take over. Start over which is a last resort or get a kleins. Everything else,copperbands,peps,snake oils aren't very reliable. I tried dozens of peps and not a single one ever touched an aiptasia. Copperbands are hard fish to begin with and not all of them have a taste for it. Same goes for filefish many won't touch aiptasia. I had a serious infestation of hundreds in a 180 within 3 weeks I couldn't find a single one in the display. If only they would go down my overflow and get those.lol

Perthegallon · Nov 20, 2023

Ugh I feel this I try so hard to keep killing but they seem to get worse more and more. On my third bottle of F aphasia

DanTheReefer · Nov 20, 2023

Pistondog · Nov 20, 2023

Try lemon juice in a syringe, down the hatch.

YOYOYOReefer · Nov 20, 2023

Syringes of kalk paste

Lbrdsoxfan · Nov 20, 2023

flashsmith said:
In my opinion the only tried and true method that has ever worked long term for me was kleins butterfly fish. I have 3 and they all devour it when it pops up. Once you have them you have them forever. They're more than likely already in your plumbing and other areas you can't get to and will just keep respawning no matter how many you treat. You have three options. Live with them and they'll eventually take over. Start over which is a last resort or get a kleins. Everything else,copperbands,peps,snake oils aren't very reliable. I tried dozens of peps and not a single one ever touched an aiptasia. Copperbands are hard fish to begin with and not all of them have a taste for it. Same goes for filefish many won't touch aiptasia. I had a serious infestation of hundreds in a 180 within 3 weeks I couldn't find a single one in the display. If only they would go down my overflow and get those.lol

This. Biological eradication is the way. Chemicals will make it worse, BTDT.

Lbrdsoxfan · Nov 20, 2023

Perthegallon said:
Ugh I feel this I try so hard to keep killing but they seem to get worse more and more. On my third bottle of F aphasia

Stop using it, it's making it worse. Everytime you attempt to kill it, the aips release spores and keeps growing.

tedfisher496 · Nov 20, 2023

Notsolostfish said:
My tank is 4 months old, doing great. Its just im tired of using f aiptasia, i see 2-3 aiptasia every week pops up everywhere. I try to get them but some places have been hell. I have a red line wrasse. I cant get berghia, and i heard peppermint shrimp will eat my acans. I dont know what to do.

file fish will work. Try and get one that has eaten it in the past. I suggest borrowing one from a local reefer.

exnisstech · Nov 20, 2023

Mine multiplied like mad when I was trying to remove them with aiptasia x, kalk paste etc. I'm not sure why but once I stopped trying to kill them all they started to decline rather than increase. I finally just started to ignore them and I only have a few but they are large and not out on the open. Large ones are actually quite pretty I think.

tedfisher496 · Nov 21, 2023

exnisstech said:
Mine multiplied like mad when I was trying to remove them with aiptasia x, kalk paste etc. I'm not sure why but once I stopped trying to kill them all they started to decline rather than increase. I finally just started to ignore them and I only have a few but they are large and not out on the open. Large ones are actually quite pretty I think.

now that you say their declining, im seeing the same. I have a good bit in my AIO and i got kalk to try and kill them. I have not done anything w the kalk and just kinda ignored them. On Sunday i did a waterchange and cleaned mt AIO and noticed they seemed to de decreasing.

gbroadbridge · Nov 21, 2023

exnisstech said:
Mine multiplied like mad when I was trying to remove them with aiptasia x, kalk paste etc. I'm not sure why but once I stopped trying to kill them all they started to decline rather than increase. I finally just started to ignore them and I only have a few but they are large and not out on the open. Large ones are actually quite pretty I think.

Exactly what I did and eventually they just died off, apart from 2 giants in the display which I just leave alone.

jda · Nov 21, 2023

I have kept peppermints for decades and they have never eaten any of my corals. There are a bunch of different kinds of true peppermints and people have even used camel shrimp and blamed them for eating coral. The peppermints from the Florida Keys are good aiptasia eaters and are not coral eaters. If you otherwise starve them (they won't live on fish poop), I guess that they might snack on some coral, but so would your or I - mine get food and the grow large and keep the apitasia under control. L. Wurdemanni are the ones that you want. They live about 3 years, so you have to have a replacement cycle.

If you are in the US, then order some from a diver from the Keys. If outside the US, then this is probably a lot harder.

Cheri Vegas · Dec 15, 2023

flashsmith said:
In my opinion the only tried and true method that has ever worked long term for me was kleins butterfly fish. I have 3 and they all devour it when it pops up. Once you have them you have them forever. They're more than likely already in your plumbing and other areas you can't get to and will just keep respawning no matter how many you treat. You have three options. Live with them and they'll eventually take over. Start over which is a last resort or get a kleins. Everything else,copperbands,peps,snake oils aren't very reliable. I tried dozens of peps and not a single one ever touched an aiptasia. Copperbands are hard fish to begin with and not all of them have a taste for it. Same goes for filefish many won't touch aiptasia. I had a serious infestation of hundreds in a 180 within 3 weeks I couldn't find a single one in the display. If only they would go down my overflow and get those.lol

Berghia nudibranchs will control the aptasia. Mine have even bred and ended up in the filter sock. In fact now I’m looking to “ borrow” some aptasia covered rocks so I can continue to raise nudis.

bakbay · Dec 15, 2023

flashsmith said:
In my opinion the only tried and true method that has ever worked long term for me was kleins butterfly fish. I have 3 and they all devour it when it pops up. Once you have them you have them forever. They're more than likely already in your plumbing and other areas you can't get to and will just keep respawning no matter how many you treat. You have three options. Live with them and they'll eventually take over. Start over which is a last resort or get a kleins. Everything else,copperbands,peps,snake oils aren't very reliable. I tried dozens of peps and not a single one ever touched an aiptasia. Copperbands are hard fish to begin with and not all of them have a taste for it. Same goes for filefish many won't touch aiptasia. I had a serious infestation of hundreds in a 180 within 3 weeks I couldn't find a single one in the display. If only they would go down my overflow and get those.lol

+1 on Klein Butterfly. I have one in each tank - they eat aiptasias and normal food! I used to get stressed out over aiptasias but now confident that they will simply disappear within a few days / weeks. Yes, I’ve tried all other (expensive) methods but failed.