Another aiptasia help thread :(

[MartinM]

So I have a lagoon biotope type aquarium with no fish that I feed heavily (until the resent aiptasia explosion, I’ve stopped feeding temporarily). Recently, I have had a total aiptasia explosion. Despite manually killing dozens per day, there are hundreds, if not, thousands in the tank suddenly. In Japan, Berghia nudibranchs are not important. I’ve tried, and even contacted US sellers trying to see about importing them here. Money is no object. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get them.

SO, I tried peppermint, shrimp, including true peppermint shrimp, imported from the Caribbean. No luck there either.

What should I try next? A file fish, a copperbamd butterfly, or both? The tank is full of invertebrate life (tunicates, sponges, tube worms, feather duster worms, macros, snails in various life stages as they breed, pods, etc) and lots and lots of zoanthids, so I really don’t want to try either of these fish if I can help it. However, now all the inhabitants are starting to show signs of annoyance from aiptasia being all over everything and in between all of the Zooanthids, I think I might have to.

I’m open to suggestions . Thank you!

 

[Cthulukelele]

How big is your tank? My suggestion is always berghia nudis

 

[MartinM]

Double post

 

[MartinM]

How big is your tank? My suggestion is always berghia nudis

My tank would be perfect for them, because there are no predators and it’s only 200 liters. But, like I said, in my post, they are not available in Japan.

 

[bushdoc]

I don't have any suggestions, just my sympathy. I had to brake down 120 gal completely due to maiano infestation and start from scratch. It took about 6 years for majanos to completely take over the tank. New tank is doing well now.

 

[Cthulukelele]

My tank would be perfect for them, because there are no predators, it’s only 200 liters. But, like I said, in my post, they are not available in Japan.

Sorry for not reading closely. Filefish and cbb are both pretty darn likely to devour your various tube worms and sensible invertebrates. Filefish is a bit more tube worm safe. Cbb is a bit more coral safe. Both are hit or miss on consistently eating aiptasia

 

[waqas_01]

The 200L tank is 3 feet long correct?

From what I've read the filefish will probably be easier to keep alive and it will eat aiptasia. Just keep an eye on other corals as they aren't completely reef safe.

Copperbands are more pleasing to the eye but are notoriously difficult to keep alive. I ended up going the copperband path but I did a lot of research on how to choose a proper specimen and their feeding habits. I had at least 5-6 different kinds of food and various methods of introducing food on hand before buying the copperband. Knock on wood, my copperband eats voraciously and is nice and fat. I've had him for about 7 months.

The copperband didn't take to aiptasia at first but then i started to see white spots on the rock where the aips were. In about a month I went from hundreds down to a couple handful. I occassionally poke the remaining ones to keep some aiptasia in the tank in case it feels like it wants to snack during the day.

Still not completely reef safe though so keep an eye on it too if you go with one.