Aptasia invasion - Can you help

R

reefgazer

[Aptasia is taking over my tank. Beside Copperband butterfly fish which kinda hard to keep, what are other solutions available? can you help.

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[If you can wait a week, just order straight from www.joesjuice.com
Shipping is FREE for your first order. Order a few bottles to take advantage of it. It's only $7.25 for 1 bottle and then slightly discounted the more you buy at one time.]
 
[I had an aptasia problem about 6 months ago. I dropped in 2 peppermint shrimp and they cleared it all up in about a week. They will not eat the really large aptasia, but will devour the others.]



Edited By afishfanatic on 1086200904
 
[I tried copperband butterflies, peppermint shrimp, and joes juice. You are never guarenteed that a cbb or peppermint shrimp will clear your tank. Joes Juice will. Pet-O-Rama had bottles of it for 6.99. I bought the smallest bottle, and after clearing out over 30 aptasia, I still have over 3/4 of the bottle left for future use. Joes Juice is the way to go.]
 
[If you only had 30 aipstasia... you didn't have a aipstasia problem. :D For a tank that is OVERRUN with the little suckers you will need to use a combination of things if you hope to beat it.

Joes Juice REALLY works, but only for the ones that you can see and get too. For the small ones you need something that hunts them down and eats them.

Just my cent and a half!]
 
[I agree with ScottC. Joes Juices is only a temproary measure. I guess if you have a small tank and can get to every rock at every angle you could eventually erradicate it. My heni bfly eats it in my 55. I have also heard that emperor angels will eat it. I am sure mine would but the copperband probably gets em first. I do have aiptasia in both tanks but it is somewhere that my butterflys cant get to (sump,overflows and rocks against glass).]
 
[Guys,

Thank you all for such a quick replies, especially Matt who called with his advises. It is such a relief for me to know that there are some cheap , easy solutions. I would say I have less 30 aptasias in my tank (135g, 6feet long). I will try the joe juice method. I can reach to almost of them.

I have put two pepermint shrimps in there for 3 months and nothing has happened. Copperband butterfly fish? I will pass since I don't need more problem to deal with. I will try the Joe Juice and appreciate you guys so much for taking your time to post. I learn new things everyday in here.]
 
[What is your Nitrate, Phosphate, pH, ammonia, nitrite levels? Excessive nutrients in the water can fuel huge aptasia outbreaks. They are filter feeders...I plan to acually try making a mechanical filter from them some day (mentioned in Anthonys book or coral propgation)]
 
[I hate that people refer to copperbands as a "problem fish". IMO he is a "problem solver" fish. I could list off people I know with very nice large dispays that contains an array of reef creatures that have zero problems with Cbands. Even in the unlikely event that you had to try 2 or 3 to find a reef friendly one, it would be time well spent. To me he is just as important to my tank as my clean up crew, maybe even more. I guess you have to love em or hate em. Ask anyone that has one (not those who go on hearsay) and 90% of the time I bet they tell you it was one of the best additions they made to a tank (assuming they got it to eat and it did not die in a week).]
 
@mwolek wrote:
[What is your Nitrate said:
[Mechanical filter? I bet it would work. I have several dozen in my durso overflow that are huge (3 inches and larger). Their gut is always full of something. I have also noticed that any flake that goes into the overflow usually gets caught by one of them.

I think Dr Ron also said somthing about using them for nutrient export (like xenia and macro algae)]
Click to expand...
 
[There are several butterflys that will eat aiptasia. Most are hardier than the copper banded. The name of them escapes me at the moment but if you check with your LFS or better yet call Randy at Randy Fish Warehouse. I had this very conversation with him many months ago.]
 
[My water parameters are pretty good. I have some spaghetti macro algae to control my Nitrate at 0. Phosphate is 0. Ammonia and Nitrite are in normal ranges. I feed my fish once a day alternating Formula One flake and Zooplanton+ brine shrimp.]
 
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