Aiptasia ending me.

[sherah]

Good evening folks. Hope everyone having a nice holiday weekend. My tank is 5 months old. lPS dominant tank. Everything growing like weed. I just have this annoying aiptasia growing everywhere. At first i was killing them F aiptasia. But now i can’t keep up its a 150G deep tank. Hard to reach areas etc… i tried nudis my red line ate them. I tried ORA peppermint shrimp they came from algaebarn yesterday so tiny. I dont have high hope for those. What are the solutions here folks. Thank you.

How many nudibranchs did you order?
Just curious. I think we got 5 or 6 - we plumbed a smaller ten gallon tank next to our 75 gallon tank and kept putting the smaller rocks in the 10 gal tank so the nudis would clean them up and not get lost in the big tank. Bought some aptasia x and squirted/exploded some of the big offenders in the 75 Gallon tank. Also added a copper banded butterfly fish to eat the aptasia. Tried also a wrasse but he was too small and was a picky eater preferred the fish food. I saw they also offer a gun to zap the aptasia in the tank.

Currently we are selling our 75gallon system. Getting out of the hobby. I can throw in the smaller sis tank and the clay pots we would put in the 75 gallon tank to shift into the smaller 10 gallon nudibranchs feeding tank. I can send pictures or whatever you need. Earlier this year I was offering our whole system with over 100 lbs of live rock for over $600 - if I go down to $500 would you be interested? I’ll look for the nudibranchs supplier we had back in 2013 or so? Unless you have a supplier. If you look under my name you will see the post for the tank, light, pumps etc - the whole shebang. I’d like it to get a new home. Will give you all the fishy stuff I have. It is time to release all this and move forward. Best wishes

 

[sherah]

Many years ago my nudibranchs got so affectionate I was able to sell them to other reefers and stores. Please note: Don’t ever allow them to fall into the mouth of the nudibranchs or they get eaten up best wishes on the aptasia. It’s slow progress but duable.
Maybe you can keep some of the live rock aptasia free in the 75 gallon tank until you get yours cleaned up. Again - best wishes. I’m in Manchester NH for pick up Happy New Year

 

[Byureefs]

Add the berghia Nudibranch at night with no flow
Hopefully your wrasse doesn’t see them
The berghia will lay eggs in the tank
then wait 2-3 months
The aptasia will be gone

 

[frank180reef]

massachusetts.

I have big pep shrimp that I'm told eat aptasia

 

[garyl]

I bought three big pep shrimp from Frank - no more aiptasia - the shrimp were big enough to keep my wrasses from bothering them. Took about 2 weeks to take care of my mild aiptasia problem.

 

[CoralJunkie]

what’s your location maybe one of our sponsers can set you up with some good size peppermint shrimp. I threw in 10 and done see aptasia any more. with a wrasse in there they will have to be good size

What sponsor did you get your peppermint from?

 

[CoralJunkie]

This is the only method you should consider it works. But if you have predatory fish that will eat the Bergihia you might have to temporarily rehouse them for the time being. Another thing is that you could resell the berghia that multiply in your tank. They seem to be in demand

I bought over 20 berghia for my 32biocube, they all eventually died out and they didn’t do anything. It’s been nearly two months.

 

[ChrisPchef]

“There are over 40 species in the genus Lysmata with many having very subtle variations in morphology. Most people are not able to tell one species of peppermint from another and it is this that likely leads to the confusion.”

There are many different species of peppermint shrimp. I think that’s why there’s such mixed reviews when it comes to them eating aiptasia. I lucked out a few years back and had one that decimated all of the aiptasia in my tank.

Peppermint Shrimp Identification

Peppermint shrimp are widely suggested as a reef safe solution for ridding aptasia from a tank. While others say they are coral eating terrors best left to fish only systems. Why the discrepancy in people's experiences? Well, it could be that we're not talking about the same shrimp. There are...

humble.fish

https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/Integrative-taxonomy-of-the-ornamental-%E2%80%98peppermint%E2%80%99-Baeza-Behringer/497491253de9dd36f4f65e7a4351544cc6e7fa80

 

[Mixed Reefer]

I bought over 20 berghia for my 32biocube, they all eventually died out and they didn’t do anything. It’s been nearly two months.

I used three Berghia for my 80 gallon. I placed on the aptasia. Worked. Did you buy from a good source? Did your fish eat them? This is a natural way no reason it shouldn’t have worked. Especially using 20.

 

[Byureefs]

I agree 20 is overkill
You would need like 3-6 at the most

 

[CoralJunkie]

I used three Berghia for my 80 gallon. I placed on the aptasia. Worked. Did you buy from a good source? Did your fish eat them? This is a natural way no reason it shouldn’t have worked. Especially using 20.

My fish didn’t eat them, I only have one Royal gramma in the tank at the moment. I shut all flow off and used a Julian’s thing syringe to easily place them on my rock work. I had watched one immediately go for one and the rest just kinda went into hiding. I try looking for them with a flashlight during lights off but I haven’t seen any in a couple weeks and the aiptasia hasn’t diminished at all. They’ve been in the tank for about 2 months.

 

[Mixed Reefer]

My fish didn’t eat them, I only have one Royal gramma in the tank at the moment. I shut all flow off and used a Julian’s thing syringe to easily place them on my rock work. I had watched one immediately go for one and the rest just kinda went into hiding. I try looking for them with a flashlight during lights off but I haven’t seen any in a couple weeks and the aiptasia hasn’t diminished at all. They’ve been in the tank for about 2 months.

Patients. if they’re in there it will take time.