Aiptasia problems

[Tommy Gun]

Hello everyone!

It's been a while since I've been around but I'm hoping that someone out there can help me with a pretty advanced aiptasia problem I've been battling (and losing) for the past few months.

In short, I have a 90 gallon reef tank with a few corals, a big Sebae anemone (my prized possession), and a few fish. Earlier this year I experienced a disaster and lost all but one of my fish. there was a gap in time between that disaster and when I began restocking my tank but once I did, I was only able to keep most fish alive for a week at best unless they were clown fish, damsels, or chromis. I have a good handle on what I need to do to keep fish alive and have been able to do so for over three years in this tank so I was baffled as to what was going on. Further investigation revealed a large aiptasia hidden in an area I could not see without moving any rock.

After removing the rock that the initial aiptasia made a home upon (and never put it back), I noticed a few small ones and began using Joe's Juice to get rid of them. However, I can no longer keep up with them and have tried everything that has been suggested to me so far:

1. I have 5 peppermint shrimp and have no evidence that they are helping me out.
   • I've skipped putting any sort of food in this tank for a week to see if the shrimp would get hungry enough to snack on aiptasia and saw no evidence of that helping very much.
2. I have used Joe's Juice and some other products which supposedly perform a similar purpose.
3. I've tried blasting them will lemon juice and boiling water.
4. I have a chocolate chip star fish which will eat aiptasia but only if they are on the glass.
5. I don't know of a fish that might help control aiptasia populations but not do any harm to my Sebae or corals.
6. I can't find, nor do I really want to buy Berghia nudibranches knowing that I couldn't pass them on to someone else and/or supply them with enough aiptasia to keep them alive for their full potential lifespan.
7. I've probably tried a few other things that I can't remember right now as well.

As much as I hate to say it, this problem has me so frustrated that I am considering pulling out all stops and simply taking out all of my live rock and substrate, letting it dry out, and starting over but I also have rocks with both aiptasia and coral on them so I assume I would have to get rid of them as well. Before I do something so drastic though, I thought I would ask if you might have some other tactics that I might be able to use?

TG

P.S. Thanks in advance for any help you can spare me!

 

[Ken_Allen]

Boiling water DID work for me. Hit it's hole it's formed in with a turkey baster from water straight off the stove. Do it at least a few times. Then put it under hot sink water with the water stream running straight in the hole. Get a lighter (one of the long grill ones) and stick it in and burn it.

I haven't had problems with that one Aiptasia since I did it about 3 weeks ago, or it reproducing.

 

[Tommy Gun]

Hmmm, I did the boiling water thing already. Seems to phase them for a little while but they either come back, or they are replaced by a new one. It is my understanding that they only require a very small amount of tissue in order to come back - which is why I am getting convinced that I will have to dry out all of the live rock and substrate. I will try your advice with any that are attached to smaller peices of rock. Thanks for the input!

 

[Ace25]

There is always the copperbanded butterfly, or a number of other butterflys that will eat them. But if your having a problem keeping all but the most hardy of fish then a butterfly may not live long enough to help you out. It is very common at the LFS I work at for someone to buy a butterfly fish for $30-$40 and keep him for up to a month to eat all the aiptasia then bring them back to the store for 50% credit. Personally I don't care for the fragility of most butterfly fish and I wouldn't go that route myself, but just sharing the information because I have seen many others do it with success.

 

[Tommy Gun]

The last fish I lost was a copperband butterfly. Even quarantined it for two and a half weeks (not as long as I usually would...but got it from a very trusted source who had it for 6+ months). It was very active and didn't seem to be easily spooked at all but a few mornings later, I found it laying on some live rock. I don't want to paint too much of a bad picture but it still looked very colorful and healthy that morning as well.

 

[jessie]

i know you dont want them but berghia worked well for me. i no longer have and aptasia, and you can get them online at inland aquatics.

 

[archer772]

I would try a silver scat, very hardy and most do a very good job on the aps. I wouldnt keep a chocolate chip star fish with corals as they are not reef safe

 

[Tommy Gun]

To be honest, after reading about the berghia option, I was on the phone to my local stores right away but in every case, I was told that they have a hard time getting them and/or there is an ethical issue preventing them from carrying them. I will look into inland aquatics though. Any thoughts as to whether or not they are worth the shipping costs?

I can get silver scats easily enough though. I know I haven't exactly scoured the world for an answer on this subject but this is the first time I heard about this option. Do you, or anyone else, have first hand experience with them versus aiptasia? I'm also 99% sure that my LFS has them in FW tanks. Any tips on how to acclimate them to SW? (I've done the molly to SW acclimation before...just do the same thing or would it require a longer process?)

 

[archer772]

I have seen Scats clean out tanks of aptasia on 3 ocassions and those are the only times I have seen them used for aptasia so from what I have seen they are 100% but that doesnt mean all of them will do it. The first tank was a 450 gallon and it did wonders the 2nd tank was a 90 gallon totally covered in aps and it only took 4 days to wipe them all out and the 3rd one was a 50 breeder. The only other things we have seen them eat are feather dusters and anthalia, they all took to mysis, flakes and seaweed sheets. I have watched the largest LFS here in MI take them from FW and just dump them in SW and they did fine but I have also seen people take up to a week acclimating them to SW. I would also warn you that there spines are venomus so use caution when handling them oh and they never bothered any other fish.

 

[Tommy Gun]

Thanks for the additional info Archer. I will definitely give this a shot since it has to be better than starting all over. If for no other reason, I'd probably take at least an hour or two to acclimate it from FW to SW for my own sanity and I've dealt with a lot of livestock that can cause me a bit of harm so no worries there. I do have quite a few feather dusters but they are all hitchhikers so while I don't want to lose them, I didn't really pay for them either. I'll let you know how it goes. Hopefully I can help support that rating of 100%.

Another quick question if I may...

As I mentioned, I have a very large Sebae anemone and in the past, I've also managed to grow out some other types of anemones. For example, I used to have a carpet anemone that was pushing 12 to 15 inches in diameter when it was fully open but at the time, I also had two pairs of mandarins and because they are always 'hopping' around, eventually that anemone got one of them. Now I am wondering if there is a possibility that my Sebae anemone could be posing a risk to any new fish I add to this tank??? In short, I've heard/read that aiptasia has the ability to kill fish and I've also heard/read the opposite. If they do not pose a threat to fish, then I am back at square one as far as figuring out why all of my new fish (short of clowns, damsels, and chromis) can't make it more than a week after I place them in this tank. Any thoughts?

TG