There's gotta be a better way to deal with Aiptasia... x.x

[MaraRavenous]

I'm 5 months in, and my little aquarium is happier than ever, with tons of biodiversity. I've got spaghetti worms, amphipods, copepods, bristle worms, and stomatellas.... And Aiptasia. The one thorn in my side lately. dang aiptasia!

I've been using Aiptasia F for some time to deal with Aiptasia and... I hate it. Honestly, it's terrible. Even if I spend 20 minutes stirring, test it to be sure it's thick, it still ends up being messy. It gets in the water column, boosts my alkalinity beyond where I want it (I have a small, sensitive tank), and I always end up getting some spots on a coral. Every time I go after the aiptasia I do kill them, but I also always end up killing a few paly/zoa polyps and wounding a larger coral. Although I never get severe losses, I'm sick of what feels like chemotherapy for my tank...

What else can I do? I can't use wrasses (if they even eat aiptasia) because they'll destroy my thriving stomatella population... Peppermint shrimp are a no-go as my small 15-gallon tank is too cramped. I already have a skunk cleaner and I'm worried about cramming that many shrimp in a small tank. I just don't seem to have steady enough hands to apply the Aiptasia-F without messing up in some way or another. Plus it's stressful as I have an aggressive clownfish who will disturb any area I put aiptasia-F on if they see me do it, so I have to remove them from the aquarium for at least 2-3 hours when I treat for aiptasia, which is probably not ideal for their health...

Any help is much appreciated!

---

Obligatory Aquarium Info
15-gallon with 3-gallon rear-installed Sump
Runs with a nano skimmer, 2-3 filter socks (changed 2-3 times weekly), and a carbon reactor (changed weekly)
Last test info:
Temp - 78.6 Salinity - 1.026 pH - 8.1 Calcium - 422 Magnesium - (no test available) Alkalinity - 8.6 dkh
Phosphates - 0.02 Nitrates - 8.6 Nitrite and Ammonia undetectable

 

[Ashish Patel]

I've struggled with aiptasia for decades. Only time i was successful was when I got a bunch of peppermint shrimps and they went to work on the babies, the larger ones i hit with aiptaisa X. Using aiptasia X solo wont work, it just makes them explode. I no longer would use aipasia X and prefer them to just get larger than spread like wild fire. I would find a natural predator, however long that may take.

 

[MaraRavenous]

I've struggled with aiptasia for decades. Only time i was successful was when I got a bunch of peppermint shrimps and they went to work on the babies, the larger ones i hit with aiptaisa X. Using aiptasia X solo wont work, it just makes them explode. I no longer would use aipasia X and prefer them to just get larger than spread like wild fire. I would find a natural predator or die trying.

Yikes, natural predator or bust huh? In that case I think berghia may be my only option.

 

[Ashish Patel]

Yikes, natural predator or bust huh? In that case I think berghia may be my only option.

100%

on my new tank i am going full QT mode on everything to avoid them!

I tried berghia but they just disappeared, too much flow in my SPS dominat tank. Same happened to my peppermint, they couldnt get their footing and ended up in the vortech pump. I would probably try a filefish or copperband in future if needed. right now dont have an issue since my stock tank i can easily remove aiptasia by scraping them of flat surfaces. getting rock thats has less holes is best for them to not spread. Marco rock is the worst

 

[Tuan’s Reef]

Try some aiptasia eating nudibranchs

 

[Miami Reef]

Biological control is the easiest way.

 

[reefz]

Ive never had aiptasia in my system since i added a bunch of peppermint shrimp. They are amazing. But beware, they can go rogue and eat your lps.

 

[kdx7214]

Talk to your LFS. Some of them breed berghia nudibranchs to take care of that problem. There's one in St. Louis, MO that definitely does that. They'll eat the aiptasia and you might even be able to return the nudi

 

[Cabinetman]

Syringe with boiling hot Rodi water works like a charm.

 

[MoshJosh]

When I first found aptasia in my nano I added a baby (about an inch long) aptasia eating file fish. He ate the big stuff pretty quick. I then traded him back to my local fish store (no way he could live in my tiny tank forever), and got a peppermint shrimp. . . haven't seen aptasia since. . .

 

[LeftyReefer]

I just turn the tank flow off, then use H202 or lemon juice, squirted directly into their mouth. Wait a few mins and let the body dissolve away. Then give another shot of it to the foot in the hole/crevice to dissolve the foot.

 

[MaraRavenous]

Thank you guys for the ideas. I'm gonna try some of them like lemon juice, boiling water, and H2O2. If that doesn't work I'll try to source out some berghia.

 

[Bpp124987]

Berghia! Takes. A few weeks but one day they’ll be gone.

 

[MaraRavenous]

Berghia! Takes. A few weeks but one day they’ll be gone.

I just worry that then the berghia will starve I'm also struggling to find anyone providing them. Makes me think it's an untapped market and I might just raise my own xD

 

[SoggyNW]

You could also try a Molly Miller blenny. They are wildly reported to eat aptasia but I can't find anyone who has stamped this as a fact. Probably like most things that eat pests, it only works if they don't have something they like better to fill their tummy with.

 

[MaraRavenous]

You could also try a Molly Miller blenny. They are wildly reported to eat aptasia but I can't find anyone who has stamped this as a fact. Probably like most things that eat pests, it only works if they don't have something they like better to fill their tummy with.

I feed my tank pretty heavily and have a diverse CUC I don't want them to predate upon though Trying to let my stoma snails propagate limits my options a bit... A lot of pest-eaters also look at stomas as tasty little soft-shelled snacks. xD

 

[Tony the Fish]

Peppermint is the solution. They hide during day and only come out at night. Move around only to feed,do require any space. Keep one in my overflow chamber

 

[MaraRavenous]

Peppermint is the solution. They hide during day and only come out at night. Move around only to feed,do require any space. Keep one in my overflow chamber

Wouldn't you be worried about aggression between them and my Skunk Cleaner though in such a small tank?

 

[ROBERT35]

I'm 5 months in, and my little aquarium is happier than ever, with tons of biodiversity. I've got spaghetti worms, amphipods, copepods, bristle worms, and stomatellas.... And Aiptasia. The one thorn in my side lately. dang aiptasia!

I've been using Aiptasia F for some time to deal with Aiptasia and... I hate it. Honestly, it's terrible. Even if I spend 20 minutes stirring, test it to be sure it's thick, it still ends up being messy. It gets in the water column, boosts my alkalinity beyond where I want it (I have a small, sensitive tank), and I always end up getting some spots on a coral. Every time I go after the aiptasia I do kill them, but I also always end up killing a few paly/zoa polyps and wounding a larger coral. Although I never get severe losses, I'm sick of what feels like chemotherapy for my tank...

What else can I do? I can't use wrasses (if they even eat aiptasia) because they'll destroy my thriving stomatella population... Peppermint shrimp are a no-go as my small 15-gallon tank is too cramped. I already have a skunk cleaner and I'm worried about cramming that many shrimp in a small tank. I just don't seem to have steady enough hands to apply the Aiptasia-F without messing up in some way or another. Plus it's stressful as I have an aggressive clownfish who will disturb any area I put aiptasia-F on if they see me do it, so I have to remove them from the aquarium for at least 2-3 hours when I treat for aiptasia, which is probably not ideal for their health...

Any help is much appreciated!

---

Obligatory Aquarium Info
15-gallon with 3-gallon rear-installed Sump
Runs with a nano skimmer, 2-3 filter socks (changed 2-3 times weekly), and a carbon reactor (changed weekly)
Last test info:
Temp - 78.6 Salinity - 1.026 pH - 8.1 Calcium - 422 Magnesium - (no test available) Alkalinity - 8.6 dkh
Phosphates - 0.02 Nitrates - 8.6 Nitrite and Ammonia undetectable

I got a file fish and he solved the problem- pretty cool looking too. I also have put some coral putty over them and it smothers them out.

 

[Starganderfish]

Berghia if you can get them, seems to be the best solution, but they're not that common sadly.
Most Aptasia eating fish aren;t suitable for nano tanks, let alone anything smaller.
If you cant get Berghia, Peppermint are next best for a small tank. They're tiny, will have minimal impact on bio-load, hide during the day and as long as there's APtasia to eat, and you get the correct species of Peppermint, are unlikely to bother anything else.
I've just added three of them to my 4 Gal Pico and have ZERO concerns about impacting bio-load. I have at least 2 dozen assorted snails in the tank and two pico fish (Clown Goby and Purple Firefish). A few shrimp are effectively nothing in terms of bio load.
Even half a dozen Peppermints wouldn't be noticeable in a 15 gal - I regularly add snails a dozen at a time n my 20 Gal to maintain populations - tiny, invert clean-up crew isn't really affecting biol-load. You'd need 20 peppermint shrimps or more to be the equivalent of even a smallish fish.
Again, just make sure you get the right one. You want Lysmata wurdemanni - (A) in the image below:

(A) Lysmata wurdemanni
(B) Lysmata rathbunae
(C) Lysmata ankeri
(D) Lysmata boggessi
(E) Lysmata pederseni
(F) Lysmata bahia