Massive Aipstasia Infestation Solutions

[Confuse]

I have an ENORMOUS amount of aipstasia in my tank. And many are HUGE. It's bad, OK? I'll post some pics in a bit....Given my own laziness and time with graduate school, I never got around to eradicating them, so now they are out of control. Now that I am on winter break, I can dedicate some time in starting to work on the problem.

So....how would you eradicate massive amounts of aipstasia? I've tried peppermint shrimp, but they never go for the aipstasia because I tend to feed my tank often due to the amount of fish, so they never acquire a taste for it. Plus, I have wrasses, so they make expensive snacks. Never tried berghia nudibranches due to cost and my wrasses and for my fear that the aipstasias are far too large for them.

I'm planning to acid bath some infested rock, but I know they'll be reinfested. Any suggestions? I am able to add any kind of aptasia eating fish since I lost most of my large fish in a crash recently. I only now have two small tangs which appear more peaceful than the other larger tangs I used to have.

 

[TypicalWhiteAZN]

File fish... but after the aptasia, they go after the corals.

Safest I can figure is acclimate a copperband butterfly to eat aptasia. Copperband are known to consume them but often time, most people just drop 'em into a tank thinking they'll immediately go after the aptasia, doesn't happen. So you have to ween it to eat aptasia. Use an acclimation box like the Sea Side Aquatics one, the dividers are removal for extra room. House the copperband and rocks full aptasia in the box together. Ideally the copperband will start munching on the aptasia til they're all gone. When they are, release it and ideally it'll hunt for aptasia when it needs to feed.

link of acclimation box below

https://www.seasideaquatics.com/cat...fault/collapsible-rf-400c-acclimation-box.jpg

 

[EyeReef]

A file fish cleared my tank of Aipstasia really fast but soon after he cleared all my zoas. Unfortunately my tank had a lot of rock work so it made catching him difficult. So I do recommend PIFing him along after he is done with his job. I know in SD we have a couple of them circulating.


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[reefes pieces]

Joe's juice and pep shrimps if you don't want a filefish.

 

[BeanMachine]

My vote is a matted file fish over the peppermints. They are much easier to catch.

 

[EyeReef]

Hah I don't have ninja skills like Cody. I did end up buying a fish trap to finally catch that sucker.


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[bustayanky]

I just recently just bought like 5 peppermint shrimps to take care of my aipstasia problem and they cleared it out in a month cause i bought some at JDEllis aquatics from their black friday sale.

 

[Confuse]

File fish... but after the aptasia, they go after the corals.

Safest I can figure is acclimate a copperband butterfly to eat aptasia. Copperband are known to consume them but often time, most people just drop 'em into a tank thinking they'll immediately go after the aptasia, doesn't happen. So you have to ween it to eat aptasia. Use an acclimation box like the Sea Side Aquatics one, the dividers are removal for extra room. House the copperband and rocks full aptasia in the box together. Ideally the copperband will start munching on the aptasia til they're all gone. When they are, release it and ideally it'll hunt for aptasia when it needs to feed.

link of acclimation box below

https://www.seasideaquatics.com/cat...fault/collapsible-rf-400c-acclimation-box.jpg

No corals in this tank. How responsive are file fish to aipstasia? Do you have to find one that is actually EATING aipstasia already? Or do they eat aipstasia out of the box? lol

 

[BeanMachine]

No corals in this tank. How responsive are file fish to aipstasia? Do you have to find one that is actually EATING aipstasia already? Or do they eat aipstasia out of the box? lol

Well... they are called aiptasia eating filefish lol

 

[solitude127]

If you were to go with a chemical solution, what would y'all use?

 

[Confuse]

Well... they are called aiptasia eating filefish lol

Oh dang! What is their scientific name?

EDIT: Nevermind. Found it. Ok....lemmie do some research.

 

[Confuse]

Man, these guys are ugly! ;[ But if they get the job done...

 

[BeanMachine]

Oh dang! What is their scientific name?

EDIT: Nevermind. Found it. Ok....lemmie do some research.

Here you go.

http://lmgtfy.com/?t=i&q=Aiptasia+Eating+Filefish

 

[Confuse]

Here you go.

http://lmgtfy.com/?t=i&q=Aiptasia+Eating+Filefish

lol. Thanks.

 

[Azasb]

My vote is a matted file fish over the peppermints. They are much easier to catch.

Why would the peppermint need to be removed, do they eat coral as well?

 

[bustayanky]

Why would the peppermint need to be removed, do they eat coral as well?

I never take mine out without issues but not sure if they are even alive cause I never even see them. Let's hear what Cody thinks

 

[BeanMachine]

Why would the peppermint need to be removed, do they eat coral as well?

Yep...

 

[Lionshooter20]

I agree with copperbands
Had at least 50-100 aptasia in my 180g and a pair of CCB's took care of it in a few days!
They are always looking in crevices for food but don't touch any of my LPS/SPS or other. Added bonus is when they're done they are nice to look at and don't need to get rid of them.



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[TypicalWhiteAZN]

Why would the peppermint need to be removed, do they eat coral as well?

Peppermint are generally scavengers and night feeders in a tank... I put them in an acclimation box, whenever I had plugs full of aptasia, I would throw it in with them and within 10 minutes, its aptasia free.

As for peppermint running free, I'm not a fan because when they don't get feed well, they'll go after corals.

 

[Azasb]

I agree with copperbands
Had at least 50-100 aptasia in my 180g and a pair of CCB's took care of it in a few days!
They are always looking in crevices for food but don't touch any of my LPS/SPS or other. Added bonus is when they're done they are nice to look at and don't need to get rid of them.



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This is what I'm hopping to do, get a CCB and let it go crazy on the aptasia. While it has the apt. as food I wanna train to eat frozen food. I really like this fish and would like to keep at lease one.