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Aiptasia Infested Tank


disaster999

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Heres a little blog of my aiptasia infested tank.

 

I recently bought 2 baby peppermint shrimp hoping it would take care of my problem, but a few weeks went by and I couldnt really see them making a dent in my aiptasia problem. I havent seen the 2 peppermint shrimp after I released them into my tank also.

 

So I went and bought more peppermint shrimp. This time they are much larger so I thought I would keep a log on how effective....or non effective peppermint shrimps are in a heavy aiptasia infested tank.

 

heres how bad the infestation is

IMAG1759.jpg

IMAG1760.jpgIMAG1761.jpg

 

Heres the 2 peppermint shrimp I bought today inside the trap box

IMAG1757.jpg

 

the 2 piece of SPS coral with tons of aiptasia on it just to see if they shrimp actually eats them

IMAG1758.jpg

 

Will give an update tomorrow

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Heres a little blog of my aiptasia infested tank.

 

I recently bought 2 baby peppermint shrimp hoping it would take care of my problem, but a few weeks went by and I couldnt really see them making a dent in my aiptasia problem. I havent seen the 2 peppermint shrimp after I released them into my tank also.

 

So I went and bought more peppermint shrimp. This time they are much larger so I thought I would keep a log on how effective....or non effective peppermint shrimps are in a heavy aiptasia infested tank.

 

heres how bad the infestation is

IMAG1759.jpgIMAG1760.jpgIMAG1761.jpg

 

Heres the 2 peppermint shrimp I bought today inside the trap box

IMAG1757.jpg

 

the 2 piece of SPS coral with tons of aiptasia on it just to see if they shrimp actually eats them

IMAG1758.jpg

 

Will give an update tomorrow

Heres a little blog of my aiptasia infested tank.

 

I recently bought 2 baby peppermint shrimp hoping it would take care of my problem, but a few weeks went by and I couldnt really see them making a dent in my aiptasia problem. I havent seen the 2 peppermint shrimp after I released them into my tank also.

 

So I went and bought more peppermint shrimp. This time they are much larger so I thought I would keep a log on how effective....or non effective peppermint shrimps are in a heavy aiptasia infested tank.

 

heres how bad the infestation is

IMAG1759.jpgIMAG1760.jpgIMAG1761.jpg

 

Heres the 2 peppermint shrimp I bought today inside the trap box

IMAG1757.jpg

 

the 2 piece of SPS coral with tons of aiptasia on it just to see if they shrimp actually eats them

IMAG1758.jpg

 

Will give an update tomorrow

Don't feed the shrimp. I had great luck with my peppermint shrimp years ago.
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Don't feed the shrimp. I had great luck with my peppermint shrimp years ago.

 

Yes but how do you not feed shrimp when you have other life forms in the tank that need to be fed ... and for how long do you suggest not feeding them if that were possible ... ?

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Yes but how do you not feed shrimp when you have other life forms in the tank that need to be fed ... and for how long do you suggest not feeding them if that were possible ... ?

Well his are in a trap so no food in the trap. I had a biocube 29 with at least 200 aiptasia. I purchased 5 peppermint shrimp. I put them in the tank. I would pull out a few large flakes of food from my container. I put the food in the tank and would wait for the fish to snatch it up. I continued to do this until this fish stopped eating. Those 5 peppermint shrimp wiped those rocks clean in less than 2 weeks. Once the aiptasia was gone I feed the shrimps.
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Well his are in a trap so no food in the trap. I had a biocube 29 with at least 200 aiptasia. I purchased 5 peppermint shrimp. I put them in the tank. I would pull out a few large flakes of food from my container. I put the food in the tank and would wait for the fish to snatch it up. I continued to do this until this fish stopped eating. Those 5 peppermint shrimp wiped those rocks clean in less than 2 weeks. Once the aiptasia was gone I feed the shrimps.

 

Well It seems that doing so worked for you .... Nice

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Try Berghia Nudibranchs to get rid of them ..

From where im from, I'll be surprised if any LFS knew what they are. Peppermint shrimp is the next best thing haha

 

Don't feed the shrimp. I had great luck with my peppermint shrimp years ago.

Yeah I wont feed them. They wouldnt have much luck finding food in my tank since I feed sparingly. Any pellets that sink to the bottom will be consumed in seconds by the cleaner shrimp.

 

Cool tank! Turn it into a pest tank! :D

Unfortunately, yes =(

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Your right. They are more active at night.

 

Woke up this morning to find some of the aiptasia is missing from the SPS frags...seems like its working

IMAG1762.jpg

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I noticed my shrimp only ate them when lights were off.

 

+1 ^

I had a BC29 as well. The Peps ate the aiptasia in a couple of nights....then went for the zoas :o

 

My 40B looked worse than your tank does now. Went the Berghia route. They took a few weeks to get going, but destroyed everyone of them within a month....hundreds and hundreds of them.

 

Good luck!

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Try Berghia Nudibranchs to get rid of them ..

 

You know, I recently tried a half-dozen Berghia in my live rock "holding" tank to try to head off a few dozen small aiptasia before they become an infestation. Over the course of a week all the Berghia disappeared and upon closer inspection I can't see that they finished off even a single anemone.

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Both sps frags are free of aiptasia...the peppermint shrimp seem to be doing their job.

 

IMAG1763.jpg

 

I guess its time to release them into the tank and hope for the best

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Well been about a week since I released them into my tank and Im not seeing much difference in my aiptasia population. I see them poking their heads out of rocks once in a while so I know they are still alive. Im guessing they have a lot to chew through and digest so this might tank longer than expected...Im tempted to get more peppermint shrimps, but I might have another problem when all the aiptasia is gone and the shrimp has nothing else to feed on.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Its been 2 weeks since my last post and I dont really see a drop in aiptasia. 1 or 2 of them will poke their heads out when its feeding time, so I know they are still alive, but I dont see my aiptasia problem going down. I make sure they dont get any pellets when I feed and I dont broadcast fee my tank anymore just to get them to starve and eat the aiptasia. They ate the aiptasia when I have them in my breeder box, but once its released into the "wild" they just stopped eating it.

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Its been 2 weeks since my last post and I dont really see a drop in aiptasia. 1 or 2 of them will poke their heads out when its feeding time, so I know they are still alive, but I dont see my aiptasia problem going down. I make sure they dont get any pellets when I feed and I dont broadcast fee my tank anymore just to get them to starve and eat the aiptasia. They ate the aiptasia when I have them in my breeder box, but once its released into the "wild" they just stopped eating it.

maybe they're feasting on your pod population. I hardly ever see my cleaner shrimps grab stuff when i broadcast but they are out in full force after lights out rummaging around the rocks.

 

This is disappointing to hear as I will eventually have an aiptasia problem. I have probably a handful now, and I stayed after them for a while with the aiptasia X but the stuff doesn't work even when I get frustrated and smother them with the stuff.

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I hope that is the case and there are too many pods in my tank. Hopefully 4 Shrimp is enough to wipe out the population and they can start munching on the aiptasia.

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You know, I recently tried a half-dozen Berghia in my live rock "holding" tank to try to head off a few dozen small aiptasia before they become an infestation. Over the course of a week all the Berghia disappeared and upon closer inspection I can't see that they finished off even a single anemone.

same thing happened to me, now im just annoyed i spent so much money on them

 

aip x made thing worst

 

pep. shrimp are my last option

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  • 2 weeks later...

considering the problem, you could try smothering the aiptasia with epoxy. Irritate it with a chopstick till it closes before smothering. Be sure to use superglued gel on the epoxy before entombing it. At least for your bigger areas you can try it.

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Sometimes peppermint shrimp won't go after big aiptasia. You might want to try to knock down all of the big ones manually and let the peppermints go after the small ones and emerging new ones.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I was working on my LED light upgrade and I had the lights off for 5 days. During that 5 days I fed the tank very little as well, so when I was done with the upgrade and put the light back on, I was surprised to see quite a few aiptasia gone in my tank. The big ones are still there but the smaller ones does seem to be mostly gone. This is a good sign. Ill take some pictures tonight to show the before and after.

 

I thought about smothering the aiptasia with epoxy, but then I will have random patches of putty all over my rocks which would look kind of weird. If else fails, I might do that for the bigger aiptasia so I can stop them from reproducing.

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  • 4 weeks later...

2-3 weeks ago, I noticed there a peppermint shrimp in the return section of my sump. He was hiding under return pump so didnt really notice it till now. I couldnt get him to get out so I took out my pump. Surprisingly enough, there was another one hidden as well. I tossed them back into the tank and waited. It seems like they are finally doing their job. I see more and more aiptasia disappearing in my tank. Although not as fast as I hoped but definitely they are doing something.

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