Aiptasia

Joined
7 May 2007
Posts
78
Reaction score
5
Location
Durban
Hi all

The dreaded Aiptasia plague is slowly but surely raising it's ugly head in my system. Iv'e tried TM Elimi-Aiptas , but after a while they seem to burst back with a vengeance. Tried two Copper banded Butterflies without success and i am no longer interested in killing these beautiful creatures.So where to now? Peppermint shrimps?.........my Wrasse will make short meat of those dudes i'm sure.
Who is doing what to control this menace??
Are there any sponsors that are maybe able to get their hands on Berghia nudi's??
 
Hi Frank this really is an ugly plague. I too tried every thing under the sun including a CBB that died after eating eveything in the tank. The tank was fine for about 8 months and it eventually started to come back, so i resigned myself to another CBB. The second CBB ate all the aptasia and is now starting to eat prepared foods, which makes me happy because if he eats prepard foods and will still eat the aptasia, it will be a win.
 
That's the thing Alan .....it's a hit and miss game and everytime we miss it's another fish's life. I don't like that. You were luckier than me .....neither of my CBB touched the Aiptasia!!
 
Yip i know what you mean, at the end of the day i have found them to be the most effective. I have heard the long nose butterfly will also eat aiptasia and is easier to keep in captivity as it will eat prepared foods more readily.
 
Any ideas on how to get hold of some Berghia? I believe they are the only truely effective way of getting rid of these things.
 
Sorry Frank cant help there, would be a good idea for a supplier to get them in and then kind of loan them out and when one guy is finished, they get passed on again to the next aquarist with aiptasia.
 
mmh.i did have a little aptasia here and there but its all cleared up after introducing my CBB
 
Inject the aptaisia with kalk.I just took the rock out of the water and manually removed the aptaisia.
 
I have resigned to the fact that I will never be rid of them, if you want the best solution do what I did.. educate the miss on what it is and exaggerate a little on how it kills little fishies.. my aptasia lasts about 30 seconds from the time the miss spots them till the time they are gone.. I use terminator, I have tried everything else including boiling water but with little effect, I found joe's juice crappy but each to their own.

Leave the CBB, get a miss with PMS and they are toast. THe only problem I think I have is at the back or underneath my reef I think I have some, I am just not pulling everything out to check

Muz
 
on another occasion,i had some aptasia on apiece of rock,removed the rock and burnt the aptasia with a soldering iron

That's desperado:lol:
 
Tropic marine make a product ad it works wonders just inject them and they7 died as for Mekaeel's Way im sure it works:)
 
Pool acid works a treat, kills 90% of properly injected Aptaisia immediately, any that come back won't last the second go.

CBB are probably the easiest way, They seem to get used to a mature tank pretty quickly. If your tank is under a year old, they are likely to struggle more, but they work well. Try to get them eating live and then frozen Artemia to wean them onto normal food.

I have used Bergia very successfully in a tank before, unfortunately once they polished off a huge Aptaisia infestation after a very slow start they all died negating the chance of continuing the population.
 
i used to use the insta cal supplement as upon touching water it had a hot reaction capable of melting plastic.....

popped a tip of a teaspoon of the powder onto one or two of the little buggers (obviously corresponding with a need for calcuim) and it slowly but surely worked....

unfortunatley this method couldent be used on some that were lodged under a ledge... so back to square one....
 
I'll be frank with you frank. Sorry just wanted to get that in. There is no miracle way I think. A CBB is nice to have but can die easily. I use the Kalk method and they do not enjoy that. Northlands pets have used CBB's rather effectivly in the past. I have not tried the TM product but generally they work well.
If you can get the rock out the tank, burn the effers off with a lighter or in Mekaeels case a soldering iron. They do not seem to enjoy that much.
 
I have also heard that injecting them with lemon juice will kill'em.
Any chemical which is reef safe, and has a very high pH (kalk, sodium hydroxide, baked baking soda...) or a very low pH (vinegar, lemon juice, battery acid...) will work to kill them on contact. The problem is that unless one can cover every bit of aiptasia, including every tenticle, the part which has not been dissolved will just regenerate, usually into many new pests. Also, it is just about impossible to kill those aiptasia living below/behind your rockscape, or inside pipes, and there is always the chance to damage your prize coral in the process of killing the pests.

In my experience most CBB's don't eat aiptasia, and/or cannot reach those "breeding colonies" living in small crags between the rock. A bergia nudibranch would be ideal, except that they get sucked up into pumps, skimmers, etc, or are washed down to the sump.

So, as Smithers has stated: "There is no miracle way..." If you don't strip the tank you will probably never be entirely free of these pests. Don't stress, though - as long as you keep them in check, they are not nearly as bad as the popular hype makes them out to be...

Hennie
 
Back
Top Bottom