Aiptaisa has me at my wits end...

[Leetch]

As most of us have experienced, aiptasia is a huge pest in the reef aquarium. I've fought the battle before and won but it's back now and with a vengeance.

I've tried peppermint shrimp (2 different groups of 5) but both groups failed to do anything and both groups subsequently "disappeared". I'm afraid it's because I have a pistol shrimp and for some reason the peppermints think it's a good idea to go look in that dark ominous cave in the ground.

I use aiptasia X but it seems like I kill one and ten pop up. I even keep the flow off for an hour afterwards but it only takes about a week before it looks like an army is taking over my rocks. I can't boil my rocks as I have polyps all over them meaning I would have to kill them too.

I've heard about butterfly fish but am afraid of killing them as they'd starve after they were done cleaning the tank...not to mention I'm not sure they could handle being in my fairly aggressive tank. (and I already have 6 fish - not sure I want to add any more bio load).

Any help would be appreciated.

36 gal bowfront
2 Ocellaris Clowns, 1 psychotic blue damselfish (female), 1 tailspot blenny, 1 yasha goby and his friend the pistol shrimp and 1 wrasse who keeps the damsel in line.

[Reefing Madness]

Lemon Juice and a syringe. Shoot the juice right into the mouth of the Aiptasia. Also, what are your water parameters, this may be a cause of your peppermints dieing. And can you put up a pic of which Aiptasia you have?

[Leetch]

Lemon Juice and a syringe. Shoot the juice right into the mouth of the Aiptasia. Also, what are your water parameters, this may be a cause of your peppermints dieing. And can you put up a pic of which Aiptasia you have?

Lemon juice shouldn't be any different than AiptasiaX though and with lemon juice I'm concerned about raising the pH. I'll have to take a pic and put it on here. It shouldn't be the water parameters causing the probs, I have no othere issues with any inverts and I hear my pistol going off at night when I put the peppermints in. I'll post parameters later after I re-test though(after dinner).

[Reefing Madness]

Shoot the Aiptasia in the mouth with the juice.

[chrisfont23]

I wouldn't worry too much about 1 ml or so of a little lemon juice in a tank that size doing much harm. I dose my 29 g tank with 14 ml of vinegar a day and it doesn't budge my PH at all. Consider this...1 mL of distilled white vinegar per gallon of aquarium water will achieve an initial pH drop of about 0.3 pH units. I don't know the acetic water ratio in lemon juice, but I know vinegar is 24%. If you can figure out the ratio of lemon juice to vinegar you can see how irrelevant a few drops for aiptasia will be. Personally, Aiptasia X - if following the instructions - works better than vinegar, better than calcium and better hot water - all 3 of which I have tried and gave up on in favor of the Aiptasia-X.

Also... lemon juice actually lowers PH.

[Leetch]

Also... lemon juice actually lowers PH.

You are correct, sorry I meant lowers...for some reason I typed raising Ph (not enough coffee and too much work).

Anyhow - water parms

Gravity 1.026 (I use NSW)
Nitrates less than 10 (I don't have an accurate reading when below 10)
Nitrites 0
Ph 8.1
Temp 79.8 (usually between 79.5 and 80.1)

Like I said, no other inverts are dying, my coral is fine but for some reason when I put Pepp shrimp in, they disappear within a few days - and I am suspecting the pistol shrimp as the culprit. Not to mention the pepps didn't really do anything for the aiptasia, they pretty much didn't touch it. I didn't however try the starvation method (feed my fish a ton before introducing the shrimp then feeding very little so the shrimp are forced to eat the aiptasia).

Maybe I'll try lemon juice and just keep fighting the fight :-(

[Leetch]

Has anyone tried sea slugs to control aiptasia? I heard the berghia species is fantastic at it but am unsure of any downside (if any) other than they don't live long and will croak once all the aiptasia is gone (although that could be a while in my tank).

[atlanticreef]

• Nudibranches: Berghia Sea Slugs are by far the most popular choice, because they are 100% safe, and effective when used and cared for properly. These nudibranches solely eat aiptasia, and will die without them present, which means you have take steps to ensure their survival.

i see that you have tried peppermint shrimp. my question is: was it the true peppermint shrimp (lysmata wurdemanni) as the camelback shrimp is often misrepresented and sold as the true peppermint. as my choice by far the best for eating aiptasia add them in groups of 3-4 though and also the wont eat it if the aiptasia is over an inch.

also red legged hermits mite do the trick..


a friend of mine had a bit of luck with the guinea fowl. but unfortunatly they grow fairly large. it may or may not eat the aiptasia . you could try tobies or sharp-nosed species from the canthigastrinae family might be more suitible .. obviously you'll have to check information on them as to you current fish stock.

hope this helped.