You have aiptasia. What will you do?

[Aquatic Specialists]

We are running a special on Peppermints this weekend $4.50ea or 3 for $12.00.

[Reefinmike]

i've had aptasia in my biocube for nearly three years now, there were never more than 5 small aptasias in the tank though. I recently got a peppermint shrimp, and it took care of all but one. A surefire way to kill the aptasia that you can see, is to get the two part green and white stick epoxy, and just cover the anenome for a week and remove the epoxy.

[~reefchik~]

Well, the holidays have taken their toll on me this week.  I haven't even been thinking about getting here to post for several days!  (Christmas done right can kill ya).

I got a Klein's.  Nice little fish.  We've watched him munch at least two aips so far, and pull the arms off another one.  The largest one in the tank.  Hopefully soon he will develop a real appetite for them!

[ghurlag]

I know everyone has pretty well covered it, but copperbands do wonders.  A friend of mine (55g) was losing the aip battle and bought one.  Within a week the aips were all gone.  His is a fish only tank, so he holds no hope of culturing a massive collection of reef flora and fauna.  I am formulating a reef build in a 29g, and really don't want too many fish (a couple clowns, royal gramma, some sort of goby), so I was interested to see the input on the peppermint shrimp - and my son likes them, too!

[~reefchik~]

Every flippin' one of the aiptasia is gone!!

Now to research what Klein's SECOND favorite food is!  I'm impressed....

And nice to see you posting, Ghurlag!
 

[HUNGER]

congrads thats good that there all gone

[rayviv]

Well it sounds like most of you that have had apti. problems have found a remedy. So in the mean time I got 3 peps & a co-banded and guess what? It has been two weeks and none of them have ate any of the aptasia!
 Why Me? 

[woltersb]

Try a file fish when I was given my tank it had literally hundreds of thethings he ate them all

[HUNGER]

Well it sounds like most of you that have had apti. problems have found a remedy. So in the mean time I got 3 peps & a co-banded and guess what? It has been two weeks and none of them have ate any of the aptasia!
 Why Me? 

well just because it works for one person doesnt mean it will work for every one

[jeblin]

My raccoon butterfly (thanks Joel!) took care of mine. Nice fish and easier to get on regular foods than copperbands from what I've heard.

[lazylivin]

Just wanted to add that their are a couple of different kinds of aiptasia that I have seen. I had two types in my tank. The thin more common glass kind which the peppermint shrimp destroyed in a week. Then this other really thick kind. Looks similar to the Majano with the color of aiptasia. The shrimp did not touch any of those. Not sure if genetically are Majano, aiptasia or something completely different. 

[Wall_Tank]

so I was interested to see the input on the peppermint shrimp - and my son likes them, too!

I've used peppermints, they do okay keeping the small ones away, but won't touch larger ones

[UDflyer00]

Will all of these butterfly eat my cocoa worm?  I have aiptasia, but have been worried the copperband would eat the cocoa worm so I've stayed away.  Are the Klein and Raccoon the same?

[slandis3]

I would say yes they would. Mine cleared my tank of all the tube worms I had.

[UDflyer00]

I guess I need to make the choice, $20 worm, or endless days of manually treating each aiptasia only to have them not be gone for good...  My co-workers raz me that it sounds like a no brainer and I should just get the butterfly!!

[UDflyer00]

Okay sorry to double post, but it's a REAL slow day at work and I've been pondering this topic since my original reply...  I really want to kick this aiptasia problem naturally.  I can't reach all the aiptasia with my little syringe and the joe's juice so I'd really like to try the natural (fish, shrimp, or both) way, but I really want to choose the solution that is not going to eat and kill everything else...

Here is what is currently in my tank:
Fish - 2 Sebae Clowns, 1 flame hawk, 2 bar gobies, 1 pink spot gobie, 1 flasher wrasse
Inverts:
  -- 2-3 Green Bubble Tip Anemones
  -- Green Bristle Star
  -- numerous cleaner snails and crabs
  -- 2 Scarlet Cleaner Shrimp
  -- 1 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
  -- 1 Cocoa Worm
Corals:
  -- A few zoa rocks
  -- a large hammer cluster
  -- a 2 headed green torch
  -- GSP growing everywhere... (at least it's covering the rock, but I wish it would SLOW down!!)
  -- a few different types of Mushrooms
  -- and finally a large growth of brown polys (50+ if I had to guess)

From what I've been reading on here and what I've found out on the web, there are 3 possible options: a butterfly, a bristle tail filefish, and/or peppermint shrimp

What I've seemed to determine that the Bristle tail would do good, but would most likely kill my shrimps and maybe my bubble tip, the Peppermint shrimp, which I've done before buying 8-10 at a time thanks to Marine Solutions but all just seem to dissappear never to be seen again, and finally the Copperband or Klein's butterfly...  I've heard all the success stories of the CBB, my cousin Bobby (hamiltro) has one in his tank and it really cleaned house, but then I've read that they may nip at LPS.

So this makes me fear for my torch, the hammer, or even the Bubble Tips??  I know every fish is different, and no one can predict the future (or their keeping it secret), so I'm really just looking for some stories you've had or having with any of this solutions (CBB, File fish, peps), and how you think they might do with the system I've currently got in place.  Would they eat my Torch, hammer, or GBTA?  Or would they eat my cleaner shrimp??  I realize that I would most likely lose the Cocoa worm with a fish solution, but after sitting here thinking about my "fun" last night trying to hit a few here and there last night in the tank I think I'm ready to take some serious steps towards control/cleanup.

Thanks everyone for your time and input...

Mark

[~reefchik~]

Well it sounds like most of you that have had apti. problems have found a remedy. So in the mean time I got 3 peps & a co-banded and guess what? It has been two weeks and none of them have ate any of the aptasia!
 Why Me? 

Don't feel rained on.  My peppermints probably only kept the tiny ones in check.  I was never impressed with their aiptasia-demolishing activities in any of my tanks either.

[~reefchik~]

I would say yes they would. Mine cleared my tank of all the tube worms I had.

Hmmm....


runs to get flashlight to see if my tubeworms are all gone.  I had a LOT.

Mark, the only thing I can vouch at this point is my Fox Coral is so far doing fine.  The Klein's hasn't bothered it yet.  My green brain isn't doing so hot, but I think it's because it's going hungry...or something.