Reliable Aiptasia eater, suitable for a nano

[Frag Factory]

Hey all,

 

I have a small issue with Aiptasia, I started with one who I thought I killed with lemon juice.

 

3 more popped up, did the lemon juice thing again...

 

Now I'm spotting more and more of them.

 

Does anyone know of an invert/shrimp that's a reliable eater of Aiptasia?

 

Thanks

[William]

Aptasia Eating Filefish, the captive bred ones from biota do well 

[Oldsalt01]

Peppermint Shrimp worked for me. They cleaned out the 'nem's and were model citizens for about a year. Then I added two beautiful multi-head Acans. By the next day the shrimp had cleaned out the centers of both frag's, neither of which survived. Needless to say, they are banned from my tank, and I now rely on Aptasia X to stop any new incursions. I'm not saying don't try them. I'm just saying be VERY careful if you go the Peppermint route.

[Gourami Swami]

Peppermint shrimp is what I've heard, and they are easy to find, cheap, and suitable for a nano

[luckie1966]

Peppermint shrimp took care of pests for  me but they only take care of the small ones. Also the shrimp may go after zoa too. Get some red sea  aiptasia x for the big ones.

Also if you can find them berghia nudibranch.

[Oldsalt01]

Berghia nudies will work too, but once the 'nem's are gone they starve, and if they die in an inaccessible spot can quickly nuke the tank, especially nano's.

[Tom@HaslettMI]

I tried a biota filefish... it did not go well. The first week was great... Aptasia disappearing by the day. Then all acans and duncans mysteriously closed up, and one acan polyp started losing tissue. I moved the filefish to the refugium and all of the LPS opened back up minus the polyp that got eaten. The worst news... two weeks after the filefish was moved to the refugium the Aptasia started coming back!  And in the exact same spots.  I suspect the filefish was nibbling the Aptasia keeping them hiding, but not actually eliminating them.

 

I ended up bring the fish back to the LFS and getting a peppermint shrimp.  The shrimp has been a model citizen and I haven’t seen an Aptasia in a couple of weeks. 

 

I think it’s a bit of a crapshoot with either peppermint shrimp and biota filefish.

 

best of luck!

Tom

[Frag Factory]

Thanks guy. 

 

I've heard peppermint shrimp are a bit unreliable. Filefish also have a history of eating coral... I'll try some AipX first and revisit this method 

[mndfreeze]

On 12/9/2018 at 1:02 PM, Oldsalt01 said:

Berghia nudies will work too, but once the 'nem's are gone they starve, and if they die in an inaccessible spot can quickly nuke the tank, especially nano's.

 

 

Erm.  Berghia are tiny. How would they nuke a tank?   Maybe a ton of them in a pico or something, but even in large numbers in a normal nano tank they would have the impact of say a few bristle worms dying or something.  They are not like sea apples with super toxic poison and stuff.

 

I'm thinking of ordering some when the temps warm up around the country.  They are really hard to find.  I have a massive aiptasia outbreak going on that I'm trying to hold back with aiptasia X, a high powered laser, and frustrated angry grunts.  Usually when you run out of aiptasia its best to try to capture as many of them as you can, especially if they bred in your tank for a while and sell or trade them to another local reefer.  Aiptasia are a scourge that I'd love if we could wipe off the damn planet. lol.

 

[luckie1966]

On ‎12‎/‎10‎/‎2018 at 9:00 AM, Frag Factory said:

Thanks guy. 

 

I've heard peppermint shrimp are a bit unreliable. Filefish also have a history of eating coral... I'll try some AipX first and revisit this method 

They are and a Bit of pain arse. Constantly chasing them out corals when feeding . Put three in over a year ago and now not one aptasia.