How did you get rid of Aptasia?
 

Please share your experience on how to get rid of that darned pest.

I did not vote because you do not have peppermint shrimp as an option I think you may find they are used quite often.
I used peppermint shrimp works well and they can stay in the tank as long as you want them in there. they keep patrolling for the little devil Nems and also eat any extra food the rest of the tank misses.

Bill

Forgot peppermint shrimp... They never work for me because I believe there's a nasty predator crab in my rockwork that hunts them down. Anyways, I can't go back and edit the poll. No room for error. Peppermint Shrimp fans can weigh in on this thread.

I have had shrimp work for me I also got to the end of my rope and picked up one of thouse little blow torch lighters and pulled every rock out and burned the little basterds off. Suprizingly satisfiying :)

+1 on shrimp

+ 1 on shrimp. Then when the aptasia was gone (seemingly) it started picking at my plate. So I sold him. Not aptasia's back! Might try the blowtorch method... muahhahaha.

I did the lemon juice way. It wokred pretty well.

I have used lemon juice on the odd ones that have shown up on rock or frags. The important thing is to use a sharp syringe and try to inject the juice into the body of the aptasia. Nukes it almost instantly.

I was using Aptasia X for awhile but was fighting a losing battle so I threw about 25% of my rock in hot tap water for a couple hours...that should teach them sons a... So now I have cut my population back to about 40 000. I put in two of the Berghia Nudis a couple of days ago...see what happens...they wont starve anytime soon...lol

You don't get rid of them.
 

I didn't vote as I have tried:

Copper band: Keeps them in check until the copper band dies if you can find one that eats them. My copper band lasted just over a year.
Peppermint shrimps: Tried on several occasions with no noticeable change in population.
Kalk Paste: Keeps them in the rocks for a week or 2 then they return.
Injecting vinegar: No effect – the aptasia laugh at you!
Berghia Nudibranch: Put 4 of them in never to be seen again. No effect on the aptasia.
Boiling water injections: No effect. They shrivel and come back with a vengeance.

So now every week or so I cover them and inject the bigger ones with Kalk. They are still there but are not so noticeable.


Dave

If you use boiling water you have to bath them till they turn white they are dead as a door knob then.. I have used Joey's juice that works also they don't came back but you have to get them all and when the second round comes you have to get them when they are really small. peppermint shrimp have to be acclimated slowly or they are out of sorts and don't do much for quite some time up to a week. I had 1 in my kids tank with some rock that had some really large Aptasia on it and some Halimeda algae. the peppermint shrimp eat the Aptasia first and then the Halimeda algae and kept it all in check.

Bill

I did not vote because a peppermint shrimp has always been sucessful in controlling aptasia.

All methods you posted above failed at the end of the day for me. The only way that has worked for me is covering them in epoxy. I had probably a dozen of them and I'm down to 2. The final 2 seem to have a way of getting out from under the epoxy after a day or 2! :twised: That reminds me, I better cover them again.

I have used Shrimp in the past,worked alright. Have also used Sodium Hydroxide and theres no foolin with that stuff......one dose=DEATH!! :)

Kinda nice bein a Chemical Cleaner!!

peppermint shrimp woked for me.
the trick is to get a true peppermint shrimp, because there shrimps that look like them but not eat apteisia

I wanted to vote twice.
One tank has no Aiptasia as my CBB chows down on them. The other tank does have them because I can't put the CBB in there as he is a clam eater. I can keep the easily accessed Aiptasia at bay with kalk paste but the tough to get at ones are always there.

Peppermint shrimp worked for me however once all the aptasia were all gone they started eating my hammer coral so I sent them back to the store. The aptasia never did return tho.

I have been successful with concentrated lemon juice :) I think its going to be a long war thou... The big ones were dead instantly... The small ones need to grow up a little before they get their shots :twised:

raccoon butterfly worked great but started picking at other stuff after

In one tank I had a Copperband Butterfly for a couple of years. He eradicated the Aiptasia. After he died the Aiptasia did not come back.

In my other tank I tried Aiptasia-X but it just knocked the Aiptasia back temporarily. Since I got my peppermint shrimp I haven't seen any more Aiptasia.

I am building a ZAPPER to fry the little b******s.

I used a zapper for a while, they do work, untill I got a CBB. In less than a week it cleaned my aiptasia and all the feather dusters(I had a real infestation). CBB= #1

Hummm surprised no one mentioned matted filefish, I had about 1000 heads in my 180 he wiped them out in a few months, sadly now he is carpet food I picked The bones out last night :(

I get those in time and again.

Ken

What I was doing was thaw out some mysis, drain out the liquid and mix in with kalk to make a paste. Load a large bore syringe and feed (not inject) the pests. What I couldn't reach, the peppermint dealt with.

Ken I'm coming down for one when their in again, they are priceless IMO :) :)

This should be a checklist poll. I used a combo of nudibranche, peppermint shrimp and aptasia X due to the volume of growth I had. Low and behold, I won after 6 months of battling!

filefish
 

i agree with reefwars i got one on order for that purpose

aptasia
 

tried joes juice-just made a mess and blew around from my wave box-made kaulkwasser paste-better than joes juice-injected them with lemonjuice-worked good but you can't get all the buggers-finally used berghia-took time but it eradicated them-and the bonus is i sold the offspring to my local aquatic store

peppermint shrimp !

MY tank was plagued with Aiptasia...

I mean there was more aiptasia than live rock.

I tried peppermints, they never even touched the aiptasia that I saw...and I was looking.

Berghia are a waste of money IMO as they are almost guaranteed to get eaten or pulled into your plumbing as they are so small and dont seem to grip all that well...I paid 11$ for Berghia 2 times (for 8-10 each time) and never even saw a dent in my aiptasia.

I tried Joes juice, aiptaisa X and every other over the counter solution, includng my own concoction of mysis juce, kalk and r/o water but they are only temporary solutions and add to tank maintenace more than anything....good for when someone was coming by to check out the tank or pick up a coral but not as a long term cure.

My copperband (RIP) was THE ultimate aiptasia killer.
This fish did in 2 weeks what Berghia, Peppermints and Joes Juice combined could not do for a year or more.

My CBB lasted only about a year though and then mysteriously died, even though she ate frozen ravenously and had lots of LR to pick from for other dietary needs.

To anyone reading this who has an aiptasia issue in its infancy, please do not sit back on this problem, the longer you wait, the more prolific they will become until they are in ever crack, crevice and corner and will pose a much more difficult problem for you to eradicate....

I think it was my initial laziness and then the overall size of the infestation that really rendered anything but the CBB useless for me.

Reefwars: did your filefish eat anything else other than aiptasia?
Was thinking of getting one for "just in case".
So far, knock on wood, this isn't a problem for me, but sooner or later, I'll get them buggers because of buying corals from others... Don't want to starve the little fish, if there aren't any aiptasias for them to eat. But they are hard to find, so if I see one, I would like to get one.

Marine aquari has gotten them n and same with Ken, I drove to Calgary for mine:) overall he never hurt anything he may have nipped at first but nothing. Could notice and def never seen any harm to my corals. Mine eats(ate) everything flakes or frozen and it took a few months for him to finish. I think it's honestly the beat approach to aiptasa Thera no chemicals no starving, no mysterios deaths and they are affordable. Unfortunately for me my small tank got so infested lately that against my better judgement put him in with my carpet he wiped out about half the smaller heads then the cArpet got him during the night, I found his bones the next day:( even worse is my carpet didn't like the meal and has closed up some since so it's been water changes for me for the past few days;) I'll be getting another one nce my new set up is established even I theirs no aiptasia because they are the ugliest and at the same time most beautiful fish I had seen weird how hat works:)

for reference it has to be a matted filefish others will pick at lps and softies alot:):)

I tried boiling water on the single one I found for a few nights. It survived no problem. Since I only have found one and I really didn't want to take chances I mashed a gob of epoxy putty over it. It's def dead.

Matted file fish is what i use, and he keeps aptasia in check. I had about 20 before i put him in, and he took care of them all. I still get one popping up now and again. But he takes care of them. He also like Xenia though, but he cant eat is faster than in grows.

Also he is a very cool fish, and eats any food i put in the tank.

I will second the pepermint shrimp, I used kalk slury to nuke the big ones with a needle and the 4 pepermint shrimp I had took care of the rest. you have to be carfull you are getting real pepermint shrimp though not the ones that look almost the same.

Steve

Could not vote as another type of fish was not an option.

I used the Matted Filefish Acreichthys tomentosus

Yup matted filefish best non chemical weapon bar none,and touches no corals.

when I looked it up I got this
"The Matted Filefish is known to eat Aiptasia anemone in the home aquarium, but normally nips at soft and stony corals as well."

aside from that it is one ugly fish :mrgreen:

Steve

Mine hasn't touched any other coral, and cleaned my tank of hundreds of aptasia. And after a while, they kinda become cute :)

Edit: I've also had him 6 months now, long after the aptasia were done, and he thrives on mysis. In my mind, absolutely the best defense against aptasia..