Is an aiptasia free tank just a dream?

[dadnjesse]

The only thing that has worked for my tank is a Copperband Butterfly. It's been a few years with him and the only ones I get now are in my overflow.

 

[KrisReef]

did your copperband ever bite any corals after the Aiptasia disappeared? Just curious because I was thinking of getting one myself

Does it matter?

Aiptasia are wicked evil ugly destroyers of coral reefs.

 

[Dburr1014]

Yes I tried but they were killed by my wrasses, I have have been quite successful with filefish in the past

Can I ask how, when did you add berghia?

I have been successful with wrasse two times in the past.

Most times I read, people add during the day or only add one or two and not as a group all together.

My current tank, upgraded a 75 to a 150, I had 1 aiptasia pop up and I nuked it with lye. I haven't seen another. Tank has been up for 6 months total.

 

[moosevandyke]

Copperband! Elliot at marine collectors sells them eating mysis already. Expensive but you spend more on trying to get one eating and or finding solutions that never work. Hasn’t touch any of my corals

 

[PapaFishRocks]

My first tank in the hobby was a 120 gallon and I had aiptasia all over the place. My current tank is a Waterbox nano that's been running for over 3 years and no aiptasia so far knock on wood. Hope I didn't just jinx myself.

 

[PapaFishRocks]

Peppermint shrimp keep my tank under control, but never aipstasia free

 

[dadnjesse]

Peppermint shrimp keep my tank under control, but never aipstasia free

Some people have luck with them. For me I lost count on how many I bought and something kept killing them. The price of shipping and losing them wasn't worth it.

 

[Lyndi]

None of the pastes and or “juices” worked for me. Honestly it seemed like I was feeding the aptasia more than killing them. Berghia are THE way to go in my experience. Bought 15 of them them for a 90gal back in 2012 and they tore through HUNDREDS, at minimum, of aptasia in a few months. Bought 25 of them, 1/4” size, on Oct 31 this year, for my new 90 (about a year old) and they have all but eliminated what appeared to be maybe 75 ish, aptasia (which, in my mind, is at least 150 due to the unseen) and some of them were very large aptasia including in high flow acro areas. I have a cryptic six line as well as a Mckoskers flasher wrasse And the berghia bred and the eggs hatched and I have originals as well as little babies sifting around, at night, for more aptasia! Such cute lil things. In the next week I’ll likely have to be rehoming them to my sons tank, because I’m certain they are running low on sustenance. My last batch came from salty underground; 25 1/4” berghia and many had mated and left egg spirals in the cups that they arrived in, so I sunk the cups into the tank and left them until the eggs had all disappeared. I’ll spend that couple hundred, on Berghia, yearly, if need be. Absolutely worth it to avoid the stupid chemicals that didn’t work.

 

[Billyreef-ita]

Can I ask how, when did you add berghia?

I have been successful with wrasse two times in the past.

Most times I read, people add during the day or only add one or two and not as a group all together.

My current tank, upgraded a 75 to a 150, I had 1 aiptasia pop up and I nuked it with lye. I haven't seen another. Tank has been up for 6 months total.

I added them in the night, but only two. In Italy getting Berghia is difficult and expensive, they cost 50$ each

 

[FDchase]

I had a single aptasia that kept escaping super glue traps. I had a peppermint shrimp the got 3 of them but the last one just kept sticking around. Went and got another one and after 2 months it finally disappeared. Now I have 2 peppermint shrimp that chill out in the back corner of the tank guarding their home. I feel it takes a long time with the shrimp. I have a melanurus that keeps them tucked away all day. The rare occasion I see them at midnight they’re swimming around the top of the tank aimlessly.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

I have aptaisia in my sump, not a stitch in my display. CBB won't eat full size aptaisia so I had to use peppermint shrimp for the adults. No more peppermint shrimp, so I'm assuming the copperband is eating any babies that pop up.

 

[Cichlid Dad]

did your copperband ever bite any corals after the Aiptasia disappeared? Just curious because I was thinking of getting one myself

Mine is a model citizen

 

[EliMelly]

I have 2 bergia and a Copperband in my 200. Haven’t seen any aptasia since I added them

 

[pattepa]

Some people have luck with them. For me I lost count on how many I bought and something kept killing them. The price of shipping and losing them wasn't worth it.

Do you have a pistol shrimp? I think my pistol shrimp gets my peppermint shrimp when they molt.

 

[Gellisjr1]

Hi everybody,
I’m very frustrated, one year ago I moved from my 45G tank to a 75G new tank. In my old one a fought a lot with aiptasia and I managed to control it. Moving at the new one I decided I wanted it to be aiptasia free:
- I bought new sand, new rocks,
- I moved only the corals that had no sign of infestation
- all the corals I bough for the new tank were carefully inspected and dipped before entering the new tank

l do not know how, but after six months the first aiptasia popped out and now the tank is infested. I need to start again with shrimps, filefish, aiptasia x, etc etc.

Now I wonder if an aiptasia free tank is just a dream….if you want be in this hobby you have to Iive with this pest, end of the story.

Waiting for your view…thanks

I've got a 35 gallon nano cube that aptasia was getting out of hand. I was using Tropic Marin's Aptasia product to try and keep then controlled. I would inject the solution and the by the next day they would be dead. However I believe using that method only makes the situation worse. I feel that as a survival effort the zapped aptasia releases spores as last ditch effort for survival compounding the issue. Once the started growing in my zoanthid garden i had to take a different approach. I bought 6 Burgiha's and a file fish. I went in knowing it my or my not work but thankfully I am aptasia free. I can't say for sure which one of the two were most responsible or if it was a combined effort. I am pleased they are gone. Once they got into the Zoas they were stinging the heck out of them creating bald spots. Everything is back to normal and looking fantastic. So yes there is hope.

 

[Pridedcloth3]

It's easy to do, manual removal for the ones easy to get to and epoxy for the ones you can't. Been years since I've seen one for more than a day and that's only because I don't qt. So I watch the new frags and snails for a couple days and deal with them a they come. But as far as aptasia being established to any extent I haven't seen it in 2ish years.

 

[Billyreef-ita]

I keep on reading that CBB when is not eating Aiptasia is very hard to feed hence a very low survival rate, is this true?

 

[VintageReefer]

I keep on reading that CBB when is not eating Aiptasia is very hard to feed hence a very low survival rate, is this true?

From what I can tell. They can be very difficult to get to eat after being obtained. Some vendors ensure they are eating mysis before selling but not all

I know of two people in the last month who both bought cbb and tried every trick to get them to eat. And one person lost the cbb, the other person lost two in a row. On the flip side, I know a third person who bought one and it ate right away and there was no issues.

 

[Dragen Fiend]

They always get introduced from frags..

I am pest free at the moment. My 15 gallon ended up having like 40 by the time I broke it down as I was moving. I transferred most corals to the 20 gallon long. Its been up for about 3 months now and I only encountered 2 which I killed almost a month ago. I guarantee if I add any new corals. I'll see new ones pop up lol.

My 5 gallon has none. My dang 1 gallon had a big one which I figured would spread but I overkilled that sucker with paste.

Its not a dream, it can be done. Just QT your corals for several weeks.

 

[Sleeping Giant]

I don't have any now but I have had hundreds over the life of my tank. They just eventually disappeared on their own.

samesies