The DEFINITIVE Guide To Removing Aiptasia

#Aiptasia #AiptasiaAnemones
There are many ways to kill off pest aiptasia anemones but ALL of them have advantages and disadvantages. This video talks you through the pros and cons of every method, so you can decide what's right for your tank.
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[@el_guapo1318]

Been using Aiptasia X. No real problems, except for one specific Aiptasia. It was in my Biocube 16. Little bastard was in the bottom holes/slits of the overflow chamber of the AIO portion of the biocube. His actual foot/body was on the inside of the overflow chamber, and he would stick his head out to eat, right by my chalice coral. And this bastard was smart. Normally, if I open the lid of the tank to fit my arm in to start squirting liquid death onto Aiptasias, none of the Aiptasia would react and I would be able to kill them. But not this guy. The second the light from the lid moved in any way, he would retreat, and would stay retreated back into the overflow chamber, where I could not see him or reach him. Then he would stay there, until he detected the flow turning back on. He was the one unkillable Aiptasia in my tank.. Fortunately (or unfortunately), the tank sprung an irreparable leak two weeks ago, so I no longer have the tank and moved all my rockwork, corals, CUC and fish into a 29 gallon tank. So on the bright side, I upgraded my tank and finally killed the little bastard.

[@ludwigiapilosa508]

Fun fact: aiptasia turn green when you microwave them.

[@chameleoncool]

ummm

[@tanlony7532]

Why?

[@beaul1387]

Never have had aptasia but thanks for teaching me ways to deal with it!

[@rob431]

I got 2 when I was reef, used a syringe with boiling water to melt it, and a turkey Baster to suck it off the rock, 100% success for me.

[@marcelrodriguez2067]

I got one under my main rockwork and theres no way i can reach it.

[@alfst5546]

Nice video Alex, I have found that using a long feeder tube ( the one is use is12”long ) with either boiling water in it or white vinegar has both worked for me in the past, They appeared under and next to one of my Kenya trees, so I waited till lights went down low and the Kenya tree closed up before squirting the pests. 👍

[@The-Fishkeeper]

I have a colony of Molly Miller Blennies (one of the most underrated fish in the trade in my opinion) that enthusiastically devour a wide range of foods, but I have never once seen one picking at aiptasia.

[@Richs_reef]

I’ve only had an Aiptasia problem twice. Once was a small breakout which I resolved with Aiptasia X and the other breakout was before I discovered Aiptasia X and was much larger, for this I borrowed an Aiptasia eating file fish from a mate which kept one. It worked great but did take him 2 weeks before I noticed a difference so be patient with this approach. As soon as I was happy he had done his job he was out the tank and back with my mate

[@TheIneption]

Definitely definitive guide Alex. You definitely did your research with them and talked about all methods known. My 2 preferred methods are try your luck with copperband or catch wrasses & introduce nudies

[@CoralReef69]

Are wrasses the only ones to worry about? I plan on removing my six line, the only wrasse I have. I just don’t want to go through the trouble only to find out other fish eat them too

[@johngalactus4014]

What worked for me? Scalding hot water in a syringe and then melting the aiptasia away. I've done it close to corals with no adverse affects. You have to point the syringe (use an airline tube on the syringe) directly over the aiptasia. When they start to wither, suck it out with the same syringe. Works on large aiptasia and even super tiny ones. For chemical method, I found Aiptasia Rx - Blue Life the best. I use a hypodermic needle with the solution inside and jab into the aiptasia. Instant death. Filefish and copperband failed to work for me. I was unlucky as well with a peppermint shrimp (I think it was not wundermann species). Difficult to obtain this shrimp too for me. Berghia nudibranch - never seen one at my LFS. I suggest quarantining corals whenever you can for 2 weeks at least to see for any aiptasia. Too bad coral dips don't kill them. I stopped using live rock since that was what started my aiptasia plague.

[@KerpooHater]

apparently you can keep them in jars in a bright place with aquarium water, a piece of live rock and some chaeto, which i think is pretty awesome

[@earthsauced2870]

I accidentally killed off my aiptasia when I upgraded my tank to a bigger one. Glad they're gone, but I still don't know how I did it so well.

[@gilladams1521]

I had one particularly stubborn aiptasia, nothing worked so I squirted super glue into it and then glued a frag over the top - seems to have done the trick.

[@kimworrall2162]

The first time I saw one I purchased a peppermint shrimp and he got rid of it overnight! not seen any more since, that was six months ago when it came in with a new coral frag!

[@mathewsimms3974]

F Aiptasia and Aqua medic aiptasia cap sorted my aiptasia problem not seen any more so far! The F aiptasia is only available in the US 😊👍

[@beachy73]

PLEASE dont buy a copperband for ap control or removal. Generally your dooming the fish to death by slow starvation .

[@kellyvb9881]

Agree, I quit buying them because I was Never able to get one to survive

[@natcontractors]

I know the video is old, but the aptasia problem never gets old. I use aptasia x and peppermint shrimps, and it's under control. Won't fully get rid of them but keeping them at bay

[@nathanmargetts2966]

We use aiptasia x for the big ones and have two peppermint shrimp to take care of the rest, haven't seen a single one in ages.

[@ReefDork]

👌

[@i_cant_think8947]

We have a copperband butterfly but it hasn’t eaten or touched Aptasia

[@dirkvanassche7102]

I've had good success with the Copperband but never can keep them longer than 18 months or so. Now since almost a year I have a filefish that seems to keep the aiptasia away, no problems whatsoever (no LPS though). Joe's Juice and Aiptasia X also work but you indeed can't get totally rid of the bastards. Thanks for your fine channel, Alex !

[@bjorker40]

Great video, although peppermint shrimp by far are the best in large groups over the Bergia N. Two dozen shrimp and lights on half schedule if possible and in about 1 month the problem will be solved!

[@kakshaks]

unless you keep a lobster in which case, the lobster will eat the peppermint shrimp - doh!

[@bjorker40]

@@kakshaks just explaining what got rid of my huge problem.

[@patrickho9007]

chance upon this topic.. heh, I do a total short cut, I just remove all the rocks, live or fake, replace new ones, pour boiling water over the old ones, sun dry them, and if they return again in a few months, I replace with the old rocks that's been boiled and sun dried. My corals are on plugs so if any small aiptasia are there I just brush them off in a separate container of water. This gives me the opportunity to redecorate my 80gallon tank every few months

[@menachemplotkin6307]

I don't know why no one mentions scats, (I saw an article about them in one of the REEF magazines) they're extremely easy keep and in a few weeks there were almost no noticable aptasia - b4 hand my tank was literally coverd in them

[@JAMcDonald1]

Fighting this battle now. Aptasia X, they come back, guaranteed. Trying to breed Berghia, slow and very pricey. If you can remove rocks or access in situ, reef putty or a cheaper solution I've found is non-toxic hydraulic cement. Nyos sells this, but very pricy, or you can get 40lbs for about $65, color it with non toxic pigment to resemble coraline algae and use for aquascaping. Once encapsulated, they don't return and it doesn't seem to cause them to spread. I tried super glue, but ugly, expensive and doesn't reliably capture them. Just picked up a copperband butterfly, but so far not chowing on aptasia. Mine came from "free" Chaetomorpha. Always get from commercial trusted source!

[@enzomontini758]

Defo peppermint shrimp worked for me 2 in a 450 litre tank but.... they ate my pulsing Xenia and lots of clove polyps when the aptasia were gone but these corals might be considered a pest as well so it’s win win 😝

[@ReefDork]

You could sell xenia eating shrimp for a lot of money to some people!

[@taxol2]

I use a copperband butterfly. Problem is everytime I have a cbb , the longest one I had died after 6 years. For me personally, that is not long enough LOL. For people who has problem having cbb to eat, I will share my tip. I feed my fish with “frozen mysis mix”. In a small container dilute some mysis shrimp, plankton (some mfg sell this as plankton, some as coral food) , and your tank water. Make this into watery solution and feed tour fish as needed. For me just twice a day each 2 tablespoon is enough. Keep the uneaten portion and the rest of your plankton refrigerated. Unused frozen mysis in the freezer. All your fish (including cbb), shrimp, corals, and anemone will love this mixture. I also have a file fish for aipstasia control. My setup is 200G with: a naso tang (does terrible job for algae, but he is the most interactive tang and can feed him nori seaweed by hand), a tomini rang, a foxface (tomini tang and foxface do excellent job with algae control), a bicolor dwarf angel (quite shy only swims around during feeding time, otherwise stays inside live rock), a filefish, a yellowtail damsel (been here since the beginning, which makes him 12 years in the tank originally there were 3), a multicolor lubbock’s fairy wrasse, a copperband butterly, some hermit crab, a coral banded shrimp, a bannerfish, about 180 lbs or 82kg of live rock, lots of mushroom corals, some zoas (did not buy them, but they slowly grow). Rarely some fish nip at the zoas but so far the zoas are actually growing.

[@LightSearch]

Here's my filefish eating aiptasia: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nIa8l2RjaZaNm5I The only thing she ate besides aiptasia were brown xenias. I now have 2 filefish.

[@jonathanreich9694]

Alex, will the majano wand get rid of unwanted palys?

[@ReefDork]

Never used one I'm afraid

[@theeastcoastreefer]

Peppermint shrimp dragged my feather duster off and devoured it!

[@maskenvalorant1693]

Could you keep the peppermint shrimp with wrasses?

[@ReefDork]

Yep

[@Saifkhan-tc3uq]

Plz Make a video on dinoflagellates and how to beat it :)

[@ReefDork]

Never had them fortunately so I wouldn't be able to do a video 🙁

[@lonestarpatriot876]

Go to Elegant Corals website, punch into resources and you will see their Dino/Cyano plan. Follow it to the T and it will be gone within 10 days guaranteed. They know their stuff as the owner is also a water plant engineer.

[@marsaquariums8843]

tried aiptasia x from one became 5 lol

[@skullboy8232]

Hello i need help please i have a lot of aptasia in my tank and i cant remove them 🥴🥴

[@mihaia6026]

The mediteran peppermint shrimp version eats aiptasia in a hew hours. The issue with them is that they also devastate the microfauna population.

[@jovicueto6169]

File fish did not work for me even i stop feeding my tank for a week it went for my corals

[@tsurro8086]

Always laughed at others with aiptashia till I got them, they do multiply quick, I put peppermint shrimp with aptashia X to kill what I can, I ordered nudi’s but with the cold weather haven’t been able to get them with shipping, aren’t cheap either,!

[@BALD8BIL]

I have tried aiptasia x, 4 peppermint shrimp, 1 filefish I've also tried. Butterfly fish the first one I had end up dying. Because my aiptasia Was so huge. It was too powerful for him. So I had to remove my rocks said I'm outside. For a week to kill off aiptasia then recycle the rocks for 3 weeks then put them back in my aquarium. And get another butterfly fish. That's so far as Taken every one of them out except for one or two. That are hiding inside the Rock The one file fish that I had never touched them. Until one day it's all the butterfly fish eating one of them and joined in. I wish I could post a picture of what in my tank look like. The gentleman at the pet store that I got my butterfly fish from said it's the biggest. Aiptasia he is ever seen. And he has been doing this for. Thirty-some years

[@lonestarpatriot876]

Or just start with dry rock and never have to worry about it as that is what I did and have never had Aiptasia in my tank.

[@isaachunt8219]

I've had 2 tanks for five years each both had aiptasia. Both ended with all the rock in wheelie bin and a clean start. The only advice I would give is DO NOT use aiptasia X this will definitely make the problem worse. If you keep the tank running you will probably have to strip and restart, but a lot of people will have given up reefing after a couple of years anyway. In my opinion Aiptasia is the worst pest in the hobby, almost impossible to get rid of.

[@MrBhoughton]

So there isn’t a definitive way to removing them? Confused.

[@JAMcDonald1]

No, you're not. No definitive way.

[@freakygoblin3068]

Death ray always sounds like a male tech geek's dream. However do not think they are even allowed here and not convinced they should be.

[@leerose6257]

Peppermint shrimp all the way

[@12HENSON12]

yea till they start tearing your corals to pieces, and yes even the true peppermint ones

[@leerose6257]

@@12HENSON12 never had that problem and theyve been in there years

[@vincentlong6254]

Same, No issues at all, @@leerose6257

[@CDot7897234]

These stupid things are awful! I became plagued with hundreds after trying aiptasia x. I wanted to try the nudi's but was preparing to move and also cold winter months for shipping. My lfs ended up sending me home with 4 peppermints for my 40 gallon cube. In a months time there are hardly any aiptasias left. i think i lost one shrimp from the beginning so hoping i can keep them fed enough to not look at my corals and still keep new aiptasia from taking hold.

[@MrJinx48]

Your tank would look tons better if you could throw up a solid color background for it instead of that wallpaper.

[@ReefDork]

I actually love being able to see through two panels of glass - it gives a crystal clear look. But I have recently started to wonder if it might look better with a black background...

[@arizonahascactus9697]

No chem option has ever worked for me. Kalk paste, aptasiaX, nope. Just irritated them in producing more. Tried super gluing and puttying over them. Nope. Popped up a few days later. File fish. Tried one. Never ate a single one. Peppermint shrimp. Nope. Never ate a single one. Have some Berghia nudibrancs on the way. We'll see i guess.

[@jonathanfleming533]

These were the reason I gave up reefing…could never eradicate the buggers.

[@catsruleee7165]

Me seeing this after boiling my rock for 45 mins

[@4asbury]

Why title this “The definitive guide to PERMANENTLY remove Aiptasia” only to admit at least twice in said video that it can’t be permanent removed?! = clickbait!

[@ReefDork]

Yep, fair point actually!