Reef to FOWLR fish only have you done that??

gritchie2

gritchie2

Member
Hi there, any of you been there done that??
I have a 125 reef tank been set about 5 years, have had success and failures over the years, this time failure is tank taken over with Aiptasia!! Over the years my care for the tank has not been enough for months at a time I have done the peppermint shrimp copper banded, Joes juice ect. to rectify the issue. I am thinking of just turning the tank into fish only. I have keep fish #'s limited. please give your opinions.
 
kmart189

kmart189

Member
Over the years my care for the tank has not been enough for months at a time
What makes you think that you would be able to car for fish if this is the case?
 
R

regina13

Guest
What are you looking for in a tank? A FOWLR can become as much work as a reef if you wanted it to be. If you just want an easier tank as far as care, just get a few hardy fish and be done with it. What kind of filtration do you have? A good skimmer is key to a FOWLR.
 
unleashed

unleashed

Active Member
ok i always thought this was a pearlscale butterfly but not sure now because the one listed for sale on swf.com looks different.. this fish was the best aipttasia eater i have ever seen..i would literally harvest rocks from my other tanks and place in her tank she would have them stripped clean of aiptasia overnight... whether reef or fowlr this fish does the job
 
gritchie2

gritchie2

Member
Originally Posted by unleashed
http:///forum/post/2943336
ok i always thought this was a pearlscale butterfly but not sure now because the one listed for sale on swf.com looks different.. this fish was the best aipttasia eater i have ever seen..i would literally harvest rocks from my other tanks and place in her tank she would have them stripped clean of aiptasia overnight... whether reef or fowlr this fish does the job
COOL that it the info I was looking for, I will take that pic with me and go hunting the local SWF-stores this weekend. I will also post some tank pics later, i bet I get beet up for letting things get this bad. :O(
 
gritchie2

gritchie2

Member
So this is how bad it has become. please respond with any suggestions on what may eat them faster than they are reproducing.
 
nitschke65

nitschke65

Member
Originally Posted by srfisher17
http:///forum/post/2945149
This may be an answer:
http://www.amazon.com/Living-Marine-.../dp/B0009H68P0
Unless this was just meant to be funny, this may be an answer for srfisher.http://www.wikihow.com/Have-Good-Manners
I'd like to thank gritchie2 for laughing that off and continuing to try to get some help for the problem.
I suggest adding some peppermint shrimp with the butterfly; and, also physically removing the majority of the aiptasia. They will, of course, come back, but they'll be smaller, and easier for the butterfly and shrimp to eliminate.
 
briand7878

briand7878

Member
I had a similar issue but i took more drastic measures. I took the rock out and just dumped a pot of boiling water on it. Of course it did kill everything else that was on the rock too. The aip was gone though.
 
small triggers

small triggers

Active Member
this CAN happen to ANYONE, just so happened to someone that was honest and said their husbandry has been lacking. Ive seen tanks get one piece of LR with one little aptasia stalk and it was overtaken in less than 3 months. More power to getting back on track and taking care of it which ever way you can.
 
shyfish

shyfish

Member
Hi,
This is just my opinion,
I like the boil the rock idea. You don't have any coral and after you get rid of the stingers, reseed everything with some good live rock.
I would think you would have to do it all at once or the stingers will seed the boiled rocks.
You have waited this long, so you might start a tank (10g??) with the good rock. That way it would be QT to make sure no unwanteds are there, plus be able to have good bacteria built up for the fish while you clean up the old stuff.
Because if you boil everything you will loose benefits as well, but that sure is a mess. Oh and be sure soak fish nets and everything else in fresh water, or the cycle will start again.
Hope things work out!
 
srfisher17

srfisher17

Active Member
Originally Posted by nitschke65
http:///forum/post/2945410
Unless this was just meant to be funny, this may be an answer for srfisher.http://www.wikihow.com/Have-Good-Manners
I'd like to thank gritchie2 for laughing that off and continuing to try to get some help for the problem.
I suggest adding some peppermint shrimp with the butterfly; and, also physically removing the majority of the aiptasia. They will, of course, come back, but they'll be smaller, and easier for the butterfly and shrimp to eliminate.
I forgot to add the
. BTW, what's up with putting a #65 next to Nitschke's name? Blasphemy! He was #66. I sure wish the Packers had quit playing 3 games a year in Milwaukee earlier; I would have had the privilege of seeing Ray play in a lot more games.
 
T

tiff*

Guest
Aiptasia x is what i like to remove the few i have had here and there. Do a large amount at a time or boil the rocks which is what i did with one...lol Then it went in hubbys new tank to recure
 
ibew

ibew

Active Member
copperbands are hit or miss I would listen to Unleashed on this Bfly also those peps will not be in there long with that mystery Wrasse I own one and eventually he will eat all of them but peps do work but for how many you have that will take a long time with the peps also the peps might not get those bigger apataisa
 
unleashed

unleashed

Active Member
Originally Posted by unleashed
http:///forum/post/2943336
ok i always thought this was a pearlscale butterfly but not sure now because the one listed for sale on swf.com looks different.. this fish was the best aipttasia eater i have ever seen..i would literally harvest rocks from my other tanks and place in her tank she would have them stripped clean of aiptasia overnight... whether reef or fowlr this fish does the job
ok now that i have found my book.this is listed as the merten's butterflyfish (chaetodon mertensii)
 
gritchie2

gritchie2

Member
thanks for the help, I added 6 pep shrimp and a copper banded butterfly, the copper eats all day lights on or off eat eat eat all most all the aptasia is gone. didn't do any joes juice or other products. i will send pics soon. crazy how much the copper eats. he also eats food at feeding time.
 
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