Aiptasa

[fishej1]

Have 125 gal reef and getting quite of few apitasa characters. I've heard of using the needle in the centre, and trying to pick them off which doesn;t work too well because they retract quickly. I was wondering if there is any fish that will eat these guys and at the same time leave my corals alone. I have some peppermint shrimp but the're not cleaning them up. I've got some pretty big ones. Any suggestions on fish? My FO advised me to get a Copperband Butterfly....? Has anyone tried this guy and found him to eat your corals as well?

 

[krazzydart]

if you have any polops the butterfly will eat these first..... the peppermint should do the trick...... how many do you have in there and what else are you feeding them..... they could be eating all the other goodies up first before they get to the glass anenomies....(my spelling sucks)

 

[fishej1]

Thanks for your help. I have 2 peppermint shrimp now and thinking of getting a total of 6. I do feed stuff in there for my other fish. Perhaps I'll just add a few more and wait it out. They should get them sooner or later and its better than losing my corals to the Butterfly. Thanks again,

 

[tattooedlife]

You'll probably need at least 6 peppermints to make much of a difference, but they should take care of these pests.
http://www.tattooedlife.homestead.com/reeftank.html [This message has been edited by Tattooedlife (edited 05-15-2000).

 

[chuck]

I used one peppermint shrimp in a 110 gallon tank. He ate all the aptasia's in a matter of days. Just don't feed you fish as much or nothing for 3 or 4 days. It will work!

 

[breezo13]

I know what you are saying. I have a 150 gallon reef and my aptasia was getting out of control about 2 months ago. I set up a hospital tank and put 15 peppermint shrimp in. I pulled out the rocks that had the aptasia really bad and placed them in the tank with the pepermints. Peppermints eat many different things. I kept them in the tank for a month and only feed them aptasia anemones. This way they knew only to eat aptasia. After a month I released them into the 150 reef tank and a month later it is hard to find any aptasia. The more you put in the better. Even after the aptasia are gone they will continue to keep the tank clean. Try this I battled these pesky anemones for 2 years until now. Good Luck!!!!