BEST fish for controlling aptasia!!!! Let's hear em

[steggie]

Let's heat everyones opinion on aptasia controlling fishies!

[Perched Urchin]

Copperband Butterfly is about it if you want something that can stay in a reef tank, and they are hit or miss on eating the little beasties. Not to mention that they are not the hardiest aquarium fish.
That said, they are my favorite fish.
I have read of people using other butterflies (racoon, pearl-scaled and some others), but those are typically not considered reef-safe as those species tend to dine on your corals as well. Guess it depends on how badly you want to get rid of the aiptasia.

[chimmike]

try the "true" pep shrimp yet? (there are 'fake' pep shrimp that won't touch aiptasia.)

[Sugar Magnolia]

Yep, copper band butterfly is about it, and as PU said, they can be a tough fish to keep. Have you tried adding a few peppermint shrimp to your tank? I've always had good luck with those.


Edit:

Originally Posted by chimmike

try the "true" pep shrimp yet? (there are 'fake' pep shrimp that won't touch aiptasia.)

Those would be camel shrimp that are sometimes mislabeled peppermint shrimp. Those will NOT eat aiptasia and WILL eat some types of soft corals, like zoas and yellow polyps.

[cromedogg33]

Peppermints will control aiptasia but mainly by the time you can see the aiptasia in most cases it's took big for the shrimp at the point.

CBB's are the best choice but most juveniles don't realize they can eat them anyway.

You best choice is to kill the aiptasia yourself to rid yourself of the problem.

[Nebthet]

Well it is not a fish, but berghia nudibranches eat exclusively on aiptasia. I am getting 8 of them for my tank (already preordered) because of my nasty aipy issue. I have at least 200 heads big and small all over the place. I plan on updating people on the progress once I get them.
I have tried peppemints, but they would either never touch the aiptasia as they already learned how to scavenge for flakes first, or my bengaii ate them before they could get a good hit on the aiptasia.

Other things I have heard people use are the aiptasia eating file fish as well.

http://www.berghia.net/aiptasiacontrol.html

[Whisperer]

Anyone want my copperband? He ate all my aiptasia and feather dusters (tons of them!).

[jubjub]

i thought i was reading a while back about some filefish not sure which one would eat aptasia, also kliens butterfly is supposedly good to and generally some people have had luck keeping those in a reef

[thecoralking]

true faculas butterfly eats um and majanos get sm ones lg go after certain lps but if you have a big problem it will take care of the problem in less then a week

[tegee]

Here it is: http://www.bluezooaquatics.com/produ...id=534&cid=282 . I have posted several times in various threads like this, but nobody has believed me. These suckers smoke Aptasia. I did not believe the LFS employee either, but it worked. I simply got tired of nobody listening and quite posting. This is one last ditch effort to pitch for this fish. The only downfall that I have noticed is when all the Aptasia is gone it will "pick" on softies like elegance. After he/she eat all the Aptasia I simply netted him and sold back to the local LFS. Bought for $45 and got $15 for trade. Not that bad concerning the job they do in short order. there you go one last pitch to those battling Aptasia.

[Maivortex]

Those same file fish consumed all the xenia in mytank

[tegee]

Originally Posted by Maivortex

Those same file fish consumed all the xenia in mytank

You are correct on that, it loves xenia. But for some reason it leaves frogspawn and hammers alone. And I never had a goniopora, so I can't comment on that one.

[vikubz]

I've had good luck with peppermints taking down all sizes of aptaisia, even really big ones. If you feed too heavily they will begin to eat other stuff and ignore aptaisia.

[RVANANO]

I had a leatherjacket that ate all the aptasia in my old tank and didn't touch anything else. Cool fish too

[Sohal Tang Tim]

I recommend that you do nottttttttttt depend on fish to take care of this problem.... Some people claim their butterfly or peppermints ate them...but....most have had bad results with both of those.....

Best way to get rid of aptasia is via HUMAN work!

Joes Juice, Aptasia X, lemon juice, Kalk mix, vinegar are all things that
have been used...

I use the Aptasia X because the Joe's juice gives you less bang for buck
but both work!

The key is to KEEP AT IT. You go in and inject every single one you can see...then..next day look again...wowwww there are more...go nail them again.....keep doing it until you cannot see any on the following days....
Then...check every 3 days.....same process....
Then...check weekly....same process...

You will get up around MONTHLY and about 5 minutes work
and be in full control of them......

Skip a step or take short cut...and IT WONT WORK.

Follow above and success is imminent.



Tim

[wilsonreef]

Originally Posted by Nebthet

Well it is not a fish, but berghia nudibranches eat exclusively on aiptasia. I am getting 8 of them for my tank (already preordered) because of my nasty aipy issue. I have at least 200 heads big and small all over the place. I plan on updating people on the progress once I get them.
I have tried peppemints, but they would either never touch the aiptasia as they already learned how to scavenge for flakes first, or my bengaii ate them before they could get a good hit on the aiptasia.

Other things I have heard people use are the aiptasia eating file fish as well.

http://www.berghia.net/aiptasiacontrol.html

I have read a lot about these things and they are suppose to really do a good job. I think once you get them you can even breed them. They only get like 1/4" to 1/2" long. I've also heard that once all the aiptasia is gone they will die out due to starving. What I've read is if you want to keep them you actuall have to have a aquarium that "grows" aiptasia so that the nudibranch will have something to eat. I had a few in my tank but I finally got the "real" peppermint shrimp and now I haven't seen any aiptasia.
It is a good idea to get rid of what you can by means of Joe's Juice etc. I never used any commercial solutions I always used boiling hot water in a syringe, turns them into what looks like snot....you really need something like the peps because you would have to completely tear down your aquascape and then still not get all the aiptasia that could be growing under rocks etc.
It takes a while but it can be controlled.

Carl

[Sohal Tang Tim]

As the saying goes...."I'm from Missouri"

Nudi eat aptasia...that is not the question or the problem....

The question is...will they eradicate and do major control of a serious
outbreak??? I do notttttttttttttt believe it......Plus if the nudis
die you have to consider the poison entering the system from their
carcass possibly....not sure......but 8 of them...seems like a bit of a problem
if they all kick off... I put 3 in my 150 gallon one time and absolutely
neverrrrrrrrrrrrr seen them again...and they did nottttttttttttttt do any
damage to the aptasia that I could see.....

Once aptasia gets ahold of your tank...HUMAN EFFORT AND WORK
with a Joe's juice or other...is the only thing that will get it under
control and in some cases eradicate it in my humble and non proffessional opinion.....

IFFFF you catch it early enough nudis would be super I am sure along with the other suggestions made....peppermints true etc....

[Eric45]

Originally Posted by tegee

Here it is: http://www.bluezooaquatics.com/produ...id=534&cid=282 . I have posted several times in various threads like this, but nobody has believed me. These suckers smoke Aptasia. I did not believe the LFS employee either, but it worked. I simply got tired of nobody listening and quite posting. This is one last ditch effort to pitch for this fish. The only downfall that I have noticed is when all the Aptasia is gone it will "pick" on softies like elegance. After he/she eat all the Aptasia I simply netted him and sold back to the local LFS. Bought for $45 and got $15 for trade. Not that bad concerning the job they do in short order. there you go one last pitch to those battling Aptasia.

How much experience do you have w/these things? Just once, or have you used them over time. I wonder if all of these fish will eat the aptasia or were you just lucky to get a good one?

[Floowid]

I had great success with a Klein's Butterfly. By the time it made it into the tank, the aiptasia had really pretty much taken over, so there was no coral worth worrying about as far as butterflies go. I can tell you from personal experience that they will eat aiptasia.

In my own tank recently I have had a few aiptasia from a bag of macro algae I didn't inspect closely. I put one peppermint shrimp in my display tank and he has taken care of any that sprout up.

[SirToppemHat]

Ccb

[magikfly]

I just removed a banded butterfly from the tank.
It's a weedwhacker when it comes to aiptasia. Took care of my 500+ aiptasia in under a week. Then it started going after my favia and my chalices

[sanchoy]

My war with aiptasia .. this is the results of war warriors that fought.

1.) goes to aiptasia eating filefish. These buggers eat aiptasia like crazy, too bad they also ate all my zoas

2.)copperband butteflyfish- best looking aiptasia controller. Mine wiped out 1/2 a colony of aiptasia but avoided the ones near the flow area. He also accepted frozen.. sweeet.

3.)berghia nudibranchs_ a wasted of money for me. I deployed over 10 of these at $15 a piece into my tank. Never ever saw them again. Waste of money .. probably good in small less flow tanks.

[Shore Tang]

sohal tang tim is correct. best way is to police them yourself. certain fish, shrimp, nudis may or may not work and can be expensive.they usually lead to other problems. go check out garf.org. they have the recipe on the site to make your own joe's juice and its a lot cheaper than buying ready to go. you'll have to put it in a syringe of sort. all the information is on the site. trust me i ran a saltwater specialty store for four years and maintained over a hundred accounts for people who didn't take care of their stuff. i have tried it all.

[tegee]

Isn't that the same type receipt as kalk paste? I believe there is a kalk paste receipt out there......anyone???

[Scooter902]

Peppermint Shrimp. Constant control and they look cool.