HELP!! overrrun by Aiptasia

[Sue_ot]

I have always had a problem with aiptasia, which I have tried to keep under control with Kalkwasser or by injecting with acid. I just came back from vacation, and found that my tank is over run with them (there are hundreds of them). Unfortunately, they are the only thing that thrived in my absence. Many of my fish didn't survive my friend's care. The only ones that remain are a clown, engineer gobie, and a budha cardinalfish.

Desperate time call for desparate measures, and this seems to be a good time to do whatever I can to get rid of these pests. The catch is, I have several kinds of coral, disk, mushrooms, polyps, hammer, cabbage, pipeorgan, etc, that I don't want to lose, as well as snails, starfish, crabs etc etc. At this point, I am willing to take out any rock that coral isn't attached to and treat it with something to get rid of the Aiptasia, but what? Is there anyway I can treat it and not lose the coraline algea? And what do I do about the live sand and the rock that has coral attached?

HELP!! Any advice you can offer is great.

[JennM]

Peppermint Shrimp. Get yourself about 4 of them. It won't be overnight but it will take care of them. I've not had any problems with lost corals to pepps, although I've heard they might like Yellow Star Polyps too --

A friend with a 65 g bought 4 and in a couple of months his aips were gone.

Jenn

[oregon_gorge]

Saltwaterfish.com has peppermint shrimp on sale for $1.99 ea. w/ free shipping if over $75.00 purchase, mix or match items every so often

We have had very good luck with thier livestock........ Maybe an army of Pepps will do the trick?


Good luck, sorry about the other critters though.

Chris and Pam

[hamburglar]

I agree with using Peppermint Shrimp. They will get them all eventually.

[Vicboy]

They are right. use peppermint shrimps against them and they will be goners. However, if u can safely remove your corals and if u decide to keep a fish only tank henceforth with no more invertebrates, u can try coppersafe. Ur aiptasia will be history. Aiptasia are quite hardy though and i know from some marine farms in singapore that sometimes even peppermints may not eat them. The only way seems to be to use tongs to remove them by brute force. I suggest u reset up ur tank and check ur sumps, filters and all water inlets or outlets for them.
Just my 2 cents' worth

[Mnemic]

I think most people will tell you to use Peppermint Shrimps, as its a natural way of taking care of the problem.

Be aware that not all Peppermint Shrimp will eat aiptasia, but it depends on the individual you have.

BE sure to read this before heading to the LFS to make sure you are getting Pepermint shrimp, and not some of the other Shrimp passed off as Peppermint shrimp..

http://www.frohike.com/aquaria/faqs/peppermint.html

[thebigblue]

what about a copperband butterfly?...

[thebigblue]

some cool copperband links...

http://reefcentral.com/vbulletin/sho...light=aiptasia

http://reefcentral.com/vbulletin/sho...light=aiptasia

http://reefcentral.com/vbulletin/sho...light=aiptasia

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopi...light=aiptasia

HTH

brad

[fishinchick]

IMO copperbands are difficult to keep and like peppermint shrimp, some won't eat aiptasia.

You can look at getting a berghia nudibranch or two.
http://www.breeders-registry.gen.ca....rghia_azaa.htm

Those work better than peppermints and are hardier than copperbands.

[Jeremy1973]

I will um....5th? the peppermint shrimp idea... my friend had aptasia growing, he added two small pepps, and within 3 days, they had eaten all the aptasia he had. Which wasn't much..but...I love pepps!

[thebigblue]

i really value Dr. Shimeks opinions...heres some of his advice as well as others...

some good talk about the berghia nudi's here with a great article as well...

http://reefcentral.com/vbulletin/sho...ght=nudibranch

more copperband butterfly talk...

http://reefcentral.com/vbulletin/sho...ght=nudibranch

HTH

brad