Is an aiptasia free tank just a dream?

[EricR]

I know I shouldn't say this but I've never seen an aiptasia -- current 40 gallon tank running over 3 years.
*probably just jinxed myself

Not sure why but I only keep soft corals (well, 1 LPS) and buy from LFS where I've never seen any in their tanks either so maybe just lucky (so far).
*there is one LFS near me that has visible aiptasia so I just never go there

 

[jdpeters]

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

You ever try peppermint shrimp? I’ve always had success with them.

 

[Billyreef-ita]

I tried many but no success, not lucky with these ones

 

[Reeferbadness]

I've been battling aiptasia for years... UNTIL i got an Australian Stripey.... he was small and didn't do much for the first couple of months but now... poof, all aiptasia gone and the fish is a hearty good citizen that doesn't touch softies, LPS or SPS. Highly recommended and much easier to take care of than a copperband

 

[VintageReefer]

I've been battling aiptasia for years... UNTIL i got an Australian Stripey.... he was small and didn't do much for the first couple of months but now... poof, all aiptasia gone and the fish is a hearty good citizen that doesn't touch softies, LPS or SPS. Highly recommended and much easier to take care of than a copperband

Interesting. I’ve never heard of this fish nor seen them suggested. Do you see him eat the aiptasia or did they vanish around his arrival

 

[anthonymckay]

I had great success with a batch of Berghia Nudibranches. I was initially trying to stomp out aiptasia with Aiptasia-X. I witnessed quite a few times where the aiptasia would mostly melt away only to return within a week from the tissue left behind. Eventually they started to really take over the display tank, so I added ~40 berghia nudies, and within a week or two all the aiptasia vanished. I've never seen a single one in my display in the 4 months since.

 

[Reeferbadness]

Interesting. I’ve never heard of this fish nor seen them suggested. Do you see him eat the aiptasia or did they vanish around his arrival

They are aiptasia eating machines.... search this forum for more info ..... i haven't seen him/her eat them directly but for the last 2 months 0 aiptasia and that is after 4 years of battling .. including nudi branch (ok for a while but once all aiptaisa are gone, nudibranch die off then they come back, F aiptaisia spot eradication for years. The Stripey should live many years and eats regular food like a pig. They are a bit pricey lately due to many people learning about this... but worth it in the long run +_ they are a fun cool fish in the tank. Some might not be 100% reef safe so you have to take your chances.

 

[exnisstech]

IMO the only thing better than a CBB for aiptasia is two

IME they are not a fish to be dropped in a display and assume they will compete for food even if they were eating at a lfs. Mine are kept in observation QT with live rock with corals along with some aiptasia if I have a rock with some on hand. This is my observation QT

After a month or two of observing the fish and making sure it's eating well and fat I introduce it to the DT using a modified reptile carrier as an acclimation box. I add some rock from the QT to the box so it feels more like home for the fish. I feed the acclimation box which has holes in the sides that food can fall through. This makes sure the CBB gets food and all the other fish come up to get food but the CBB always gets food but it gives the fish the illusion it's competing for the food. If these fish are not willing to compete for food in the water column they will perish.

The acclimation box in the DT

And after removing the lid so the female can go introduce herself. I left the box on for 9 days before removing the lid.

My CBBs will not touch pellets or flake food, only frozen or live with PE mysis being a favorite of the frozen.
It takes time and work to be succesful with these fish but its worth the effort for me. I've not seen them touch a coral. The female was in my acro tank for several months prior with no known coral nipping there either.
Sorry for the rambling, maybe someone will find something usefull in all the noise.

PS I keep peppermint shrimp in two other tanks that keep the DT aiptasia free. I've not seen them bother coral but I don't keep them with fleshy lps.

 

[corosato]

I haven't seen any aptasia is months, I got rid of all the visible ones (Aptasia X and the removal of one super hollow rock that they kept coming back on) and added a molly miller from Biota. He's fat so he's either getting all the small ones or just good at finding pellets that sink to the bottom.

 

[reefer415]

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

Australian Stripey cleaned out my frag tank (1st) and my display (moved him there after) each in a week or so. none in display now but starting to pop up in my frag again so i'll probably get another one.

 

[Billyreef-ita]

Very nice fish, are they strong enough to survive shipment?

 

[FrankPC]

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

A Racoon Butterfly worked great for me, absolutely destroyed the aiptasia. Completely understand the concerns of having a reef tank. When they were gone, I was able to remove the Racoon Butterfly back to the LFS. There are risks with this method, agreed, but it was very effective on removing the aiptasia.

 

[SeeSnek]

I've had a few pop up in my 6 month old tank. A couple of weeks ago I started frying them with a cheap blue laser and so far have not had any come back.

 

[Anthonyreef42]

file fish will get rid of them but only those it can get to - so no help for spores under rocks, aiptasia in the overflow or sump, babies deep in rock cracks. When the aiptasia are gone the filefish will most likely start to eat lps. It’s a matter of time. They won’t…until one day they try a bite, and then you can’t stop them. I couldn’t keep acans or euphyllia for years due to a filefish

Berghia are too choice because they will go everywhere. Everywhere. They will leave the display and go in the pipes, they will make their way into the sump, they will go in the tiniest rock cracks. Berghia are pack hunters and need a colony until they are established and multiplying in the tank. You need at least 6 to start for decent size infestation. I have best aiptasia twice in my 75g over the last few years. I buy them 13-14 at a time and make two groups of 6-7 when I put them in.

If you have wrasses then you are at a huge disadvantage. I would suggest getting a breeder tank and making it into a quarantine tank - just to home them for a few months while the berghia do their job. When the aiptasia are gone, the berghia will vanish, and the wrasses can be returned

CBB is an excellent choice also but I know of many people saying they are very difficult to get to start eating in their tank. Some of my friends are on their second or third one hoping to get one that eats. I would suggest looking for a vendor that sells quarantined ones that are adjusted to eating frozen food

I got mine from Marine Collectors and he’s eating frozen food everyday : )

 

[H@rry]

I've tried Peppermint shrimp. They didn't touch the aiptasia. I tired Copperbands twice. They didn't eat and were so timid that the other fish bullied them. I tried kalk paste and while it seemed to kill the ones I put it on I think it only served to spread them.

The only think that I have found to be effective is Berghia Nudibranches. They are expensive but will get the job done. Don't try them if you have wrasses of have Peppermints left from prior efforts that failed, the Peppermints will eat the nudibranchs before they can eat the aiptasia.

After the nudibranches have eaten all the aiptasia that they can find they will die off. A year later they will begin to turn up again.

I think aiptasia and bubble algae are like roaches. You don't eradicate them, you just keep them under control.

 

[FernBluffReef]

Seems like a pipe dream. I kept coral for months in my small tank and one day cleaned the power head, blew around some polyps a different way and there was a stupid aptasia. Same thing in my display, months with nothing and then all of a sudden where did that come from. The numbers are small but every time I got him or her a few weeks later there is another. So far keeping well in check but it just Just NOT Right

 

[davidcalgary29]

I've rid myself of aiptasia twice (different times and tanks): berghia nudibranchs eradicated them completely in two tanks (but were picked off and eaten in another); this spring I drained one aiptasia-infested mess and let it, along with the dry rock and substrate, dry out completely. It worked, but it took six months for my tank (and it's just an Evo 13.5) to get back to a semi-healthy state.

 

[PapaFishRocks]

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.

I hear ya on that one. Sucks when shipping is more than the critters.

 

[threebuoys]

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?

I swear by the CBB. Only took a week to clean out my 125 gallon tank. That was back in July. I now feed the butterfly minced fresh clams. Loves them. Will eat bloodworms as well as other types of worms. I haven't been able to convert him to pellets yet, although all the other fish chow down on them.

The CBB proved to be a great addition to the tank.

 

[bakbay]

CBB and Kleine Butterfly are my favs. I used to stress about aiptasias and spent a boatload of $$ on nudibranches, peppermint shrimps, etc. Just keep some butterfly fish (with caution) and be aiptasia-free! Anyway, I have 2 Kleine Butterflies in the frag tank - zero aiptasias in the DT but found out last night that I got at least 50 (so 4x that I could not see) aiptasias in the sump. Good luck and relax -- you can definitely win the war on aiptasias!