kleins butterfly and aiptasia

rBlair · 05/18/2016, 01:14 PM

I was given a jbj nano with a lot of different nice coral, problem is it was loaded with aiptasia. The previous owner said he tried aiptasia x but it just made it worse.

So, I picked up a kleins butterfly, took it a couple weeks but all the aiptasia was gone! or so I thought. I took the butterfly out to go through TTM and put into a clean tank and what do you know.. several large aiptasia popped back out after a day or two. I swear the were "gone" for over 2 weeks while the butterfly was still in it.

I put him back in last night to go after them again and they are all "gone" again this morning. I think it is nipping them so they close up, but I wonder how long can they keep this up or will they die off eventually if not allowed to stay open to feed?

jstack · 05/18/2016, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rBlair

I was given a jbj nano with a lot of different nice coral, problem is it was loaded with aiptasia. The previous owner said he tried aiptasia x but it just made it worse.

So, I picked up a kleins butterfly, took it a couple weeks but all the aiptasia was gone! or so I thought. I took the butterfly out to go through TTM and put into a clean tank and what do you know.. several large aiptasia popped back out after a day or two. I swear the were "gone" for over 2 weeks while the butterfly was still in it.

I put him back in last night to go after them again and they are all "gone" again this morning. I think it is nipping them so they close up, but I wonder how long can they keep this up or will they die off eventually if not allowed to stay open to feed?

your best bet is to not rely on livestock but to get wet urself. next W/C you do take offending rocks out one at a time put them in the dirty take a qtip with hydro/kalk your choice and apply it to the aiptasia HOLDING that part of the rock out of the water once you burn it rinse the rock not in the dirty over a clean tubberware!! and apply a small bit of epoxy over the area and put it back in the dirty water to set

Squidmotron · 05/18/2016, 02:30 PM

Kleins butterflyfish will indeed often kill off aiptasia.

But if I had a nano tank I would just take out the rocks and kill them myself.

05/18/2016, 01:14 PM	#1
rBlair Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2015 Location: Columbia, TN Posts: 44	kleins butterfly and aiptasia I was given a jbj nano with a lot of different nice coral, problem is it was loaded with aiptasia. The previous owner said he tried aiptasia x but it just made it worse. So, I picked up a kleins butterfly, took it a couple weeks but all the aiptasia was gone! or so I thought. I took the butterfly out to go through TTM and put into a clean tank and what do you know.. several large aiptasia popped back out after a day or two. I swear the were "gone" for over 2 weeks while the butterfly was still in it. I put him back in last night to go after them again and they are all "gone" again this morning. I think it is nipping them so they close up, but I wonder how long can they keep this up or will they die off eventually if not allowed to stay open to feed? __________________ 180 gal, 40 gal sump, 3 galaxy hydro 165 watt LED for light, Aquamaxx ConeS CO-2 skimmer

05/18/2016, 02:30 PM	#3
Squidmotron Registered Member Join Date: Feb 2012 Location: Plano, TX Posts: 675	Kleins butterflyfish will indeed often kill off aiptasia. But if I had a nano tank I would just take out the rocks and kill them myself. __________________ .................................................. Current Tank Info: 210 Gallon "Mixed Reef" Tank (84 inches wide)