aiptaisa
 

what is the best aiptaisa eater that wont pick at my corals? i have heard mixed reactions on file fish and copper bands, i dont have much aiptaisa but any is to much.

I dropped in 2 peppermint shrimp and my aptasia was gone in 3 days. Didn't have a lot but the went to town.

i have a mystery wrasse that was sold to me very cheap because he is known to eat shrimp, now i dont know if he will still eat shrimp

It depends on the wrasse. I have a yellow coris wrasse and he "could" eat my shrimp or snails but hasn't so far, just keep him fed. You won't need the shrimp for long if the are like mine, and they were only 12 bucks. Cheap aptasia killer.

My copper band will only eat small aiptasia, there seems to be a magic threshold that, once passed, he stops seeing them as food. He would be no good at cleaning up an aiptasia problem, but has been pretty effective at stopping one from coming back. I say this to illustrate the point that even with known winners like CBBs, there can be significant variation from fish to fish, so it's difficult to say how either of those two fish will react in your tank. On the upside, mine leaves ornamental clams and corals alone, while others have been known to tear in to tridacnids like they're on a sashimi special.

I think a file fish will be a more reliable predator of aiptasia, but I've also heard they're much more likely to eat other polyps like zoanthids too. If you don't have any/many zoas, this might not be a problem for you.

And I think all mystery wrasses can and will eat shrimp eventually, small crustaceans are a normal part of their diet. Adding the shrimp after the wrasse exacerbates this risk.

this might be harder then i thought, i have no clue in which one to try

What are the specs of your tank/current stock list? I personally would be hesitant to put a CBB in anything smaller than 90 or a maybe a 75, and they seem to get beat up on a lot by other families of fish. Acanthurus genus tangs seem to have a hate on for butterflies, for example. My CBB is the second longest resident of this tank, and when I added a PBT a few weeks ago, the first thing it did was try to kill the butterfly. They've worked it out now, but I'm sure it could have gotten ugly if I had added the fish in a different order.

Also CBB are notoriously difficult to acclimate. I had zero success with them when I was adding them directly to the tank. They're crappy food competitors in general, and I've never seen a CBB in a store that was not already dangerously under weight, so unless they're already aggressively recognizing what you feed as food when they go in they can easily starve to death before they figure the whole eating thing out. They're as robust as any fish when they're a healthy weight and established, but getting them there takes special care. I wouldn't buy one unless I had the means to train it and fatten it up separately before adding it to the display. That alone might be a reason to not get the CBB.

I've never kept a file fish so I can't speak to their care requirements at all.

On the upside, a healthy, eating, captivity adjusted CBB is easily sold if it doesn't work out for whatever reason, as is a filefish.

i have a 75g tank in it i have a tomato clown, potters angel, shoulder tang, mystery wrasse, a flame hawk

Well, my Pearlscales first ridded my tank of aiptasia 3 years ago, and continue to keep them free of these pests. And they don't bother my corals. Plus they are a nice looking fish, and totally peaceful.

And I did have a CBB for 1.5 years too, before I got the Pearlscales. While I got him eating properly (incl dried foods), he didn't make a dent with the aiptasia.

Well my dwarf lion got a expensive meal , I fed him a lot last night until he couldn't eat no more . Bought the largest peppermint I could find twice the size of my fire . And he was running around with half him sticking out . I don't see him today . Half tempted to put the lion in the sump for a while :/

Aiptasia all over my tank
 

This is my first sw tank. I just realized they are Aiptasia.:neutral:

After reading some articles in the internet. It looks like my tank is now ruined.

They are all over my tank now. I only have some softies.

What should I do now? Take down the tank?

You may not need to take your tank down Paul, if you keep searching there are ways people have gotten rid of them. I've had success using Aptasia X using a syringe, others have used kalk paste (same as Aptasia X), or peppermint shrimp, or copper band butterflies, there are other ways too.

There was a poll recently on what methods people have used and whether they had success or not. They're unsightly, spread rapidly, and can sting corals so they're not an ideal pest to have, but don't be discouraged. They can be beat

Don't tear your tank appart,I think everyone has had aptasia one time or another,I just started using aiptasia rx by blue life with great results,it comes with a nice small applicator,just add a ml or 2 on top of the aiptasia and dead as a doornail,mine are almost gone now.I have softies sps and lps it has had no negative affects on my corals.

Does J & L aquatic has that?

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Yes
http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/rs...-+2.02oz..html
The key is to squirt a small amount into their feeding tentacles so they swallow it, if one is closed up before you get to it just come back when it's open

OK I will try that Thanks

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Get a handful of Berghia Nudibranch. I threw 8 into my 180 and the aiptasia were gone in a month. A little pricey but they leave everything else alone, and they only eat aiptasia so they will hunt them out to stay alive. As well they are able to eat them right down to the root so they do not spring back up. From what I read the fish just tend to eat the body of the aiptasia so the appearance of them being gone is there, but if you ever get rid of the fish the aiptasia just spring right back up. I could be wrong about this though.

I had tons in a tank that i bought from someone. I used filefish and still have the fish in the tank they dont pick on my corals and only place there is aiptasia is my overflow, none in the sump as i have a filefish in there as well and none in the display.

I want a filefish then.

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Hi Paul,

I have file fish & peppermint shrimps in my tank. After the fact, I started looking into why me zoas were disappearing & found that file fish like eating those also. So, needless to say, the aptasia are bone & I have lost all of my zoas in that tank. If you don't have zoas that you like then try the file fish, if you can, try a few peppermint shrimp 1st. My comments above are from the timing of my zoas disappearing & other comments I have read.

Got it. Thanks

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aptasia
 

I had a pair of racoon butterflies, small and large, ate everything quickly, managed to catch the big one quickly, but had to tear down the tank to get the little one. Sold them back to the fish store. Then I bought a file fish. He ate everything too , then picked on my bubble tip anemone , it was big and he pecked it to an inch of its life. Put in the refugium and took a month to come back. it is now not so leggy and doing fine. I had to tear down the tank to get the file fish and now he is in the refugium. If i see a rock that has aptasia it goes in the refugium and presto , gone..if I like where the rock is I used Aptasia x,works great too (just turn off all the power heads and flow) .. tearing down the tank allowed me to re-build it much better! space between the LR , caves , looks great.....good luck Merry Xmas....