What are my options??

[Coralgurl]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Any updates, did the filefish ever start paying his rent?

I have one as well but the little bugger doesn't touch the aiptasia (been about 10 months ... I don't think he's going to start). I'm thinking maybe the next step for me is a big order of berghia but apparently I would need about 20 to 30 so there's a couple hundred dollars, and I don't really trust my fish not to eat the berghia anyhow.

Anyhow if you're interested in berghia as well maybe the thing to do is see if we want to get a couple people together and pool an order. I dunno, not sure how soon I'd want to pull the trigger on such a venture but on the other hand I too feel I'm running out of options so probably have to do something, at some point..

Not sure when it happened, but yes, he did finally start clearing them out. Not gone yet, but the DT looks so much better than it did!!! He eats frozen too so he's getting fat!!!!

I tried the beghia's quite a while ago, but it didn't work out. I had a brown filefish previously and it didn't touch anything. This green guy has been the bomb!!! Maybe try a different one??? I won't be able to give mine up as my tank was so neglected, I have them everywhere, so he'll just have to keep things under control!!

[Delphinus]

Yeah in previous tanks I've had these guys and they totally took care of aiptasia. Unfortunately each one I did have eventually jumped (which incidentally is how I figured out they were doing the job because guess what came back afterwards?). This one I have now hasn't jumped but is otherwise kinda useless.

Not sure if it's wise to attempt a second one. I suppose I could try catching this one and moving him to the second tank, but that's kinda easier said than done.

Now that you mention the frozen food thing ... I remember the old ones were the same way (frozen and aiptasia all they ate). This one eats pellets. Go figure. Darn fish really need to get on the same page. It's like they don't even read the internet AT ALL.

[asylumdown]

Originally Posted by Coralgurl

Not sure when it happened, but yes, he did finally start clearing them out. Not gone yet, but the DT looks so much better than it did!!! He eats frozen too so he's getting fat!!!!

I tried the beghia's quite a while ago, but it didn't work out. I had a brown filefish previously and it didn't touch anything. This green guy has been the bomb!!! Maybe try a different one??? I won't be able to give mine up as my tank was so neglected, I have them everywhere, so he'll just have to keep things under control!!

How long ago did you try the berghia? I wouldn't rule them down for the count just yet. I've tried Berghia three times. The first time took nearly 3 full months before I started noticing anything. I thought they hadn't worked and were all dead. Then one day I noticed a conspicuously large aiptasia was gone. It was another week before I noticed one of the nudis in the tank. Tank was aiptasia free a month later, and I had hundreds of nudis.

Second time 10 went in and three months later nothing, so I bought 10 more from a local reefer. Two months later and still nothing and I thought they hadn't worked, until I realized my sump was aiptasia free and there were hundreds of berghia in it.

Problem with berghia is that they almost inevitably miss a single teeny tiny nem hidden in a crack somewhere before they all starve to death, so a year later you're often right back where you started.

anyway, my point is that I think you should examine your rocks with a flashlight at night if you're seeing the nem's disappearing. I'm sure the filefish is helping, but he might not deserve all the credit. Berghias seem like they've failed utterly until they hit critical mass (i.e. they eat aiptasia faster than they can spread), but once that scale is tipped, aiptasia populations crash pretty spectacularly.

[jason604]

An effective way I did to get rid of aiptasa was squeeze some lemon juice out and use a syringe and inject them directly into the aiptsia. U have to be very quick tho because as soon as u get too close to them they do retract into the rock. From experience each one I did it too died by the next day.

[CM125]

Ive been having luck with aptaisa-x. takes forever but its working