apatsia control

[jasony816]

I think I have sighted atleast 3 ever since the last of my peppermint shrimps died. Does anyone think I should get more or use some other form or control?

Kind regards
Jason

 

[ZANYMASTER]

If they worked for you Jason,stick with it.

 

[jejton]

Before you add new ones though, try to think of what might have killed them and correct it if possible.

 

[benjamin]

do you guys have aiptasia x?
if so, i wouldnt use it. usually causes the aips to comeback 10x as worse

 

[johnvic]

I have not had that problem with aiptasia-x. I do see a new one every couple of weeks but I would not say increasing.

 

[benjamin]

maybe your lucky or maybe you administer it differently, but i know of quite a few people, inc myself, who have had that happen. i personally would use kalk now

 

[johnvic]

it could also be that I have only had a tank a few months so I haven't had a bad outbreak. But I do go to town with the stuff.

 

[Dre]

In the long run it might be cheeper to through out the rock or try to brake off the anemone off the rock without damaging or touching the anemones . You can put one piece of rock in a bucket with water and cover it. The anemone might come off on the inside of the bucket trying to get light then you can put the rock back in the tank that's how i eventually got rid of my anemones because nothing else worked.Good luck you'r not alone.

 

[jasony816]

My shrimps died of starvation I believe, I dont want to take the rock out and kill all life on it and go through a cycle again, I might do that when I move to a bigger tank but not at this time. I was reading about natural preadation like heard things about Copperband fish, something called nudibranch berghia, and peppermint shrimp. I wonder which would be the best route between them and if anyone on here has any experience using them, thanks.

Jason

 

[Dre]

I know what you mean .There was a dealer on this web site selling the nudibranch about two days ago$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ check it out .Remember that if a tiny piece of these anemones are left it will grow into another one.

 

[Dre]

If the pepper mint shrimp worked for you maybe you should try them agian this time try feeding them a little food. You may have the same problem with the nudibranch when all the anemones are gone.

 

[benjamin]

i would avoid the copperband too. not the easiest of fish unless you have a constant supply of aips and a big enough tank with no fish that would bully it

 

[jasony816]

I am really thinking about the nudibranch now after reading up on them and they seem to be veyr effective, more so then peppermint shrimp. However I am going to have a xmas wrasse in the tank and I am worried it will eat my shrimps but more so the nudibranch because of how expensive they are for their size.

 

[jejton]

Why would they die of starvation? They should eat whatever you're feeding your fish if they have no aptasia as they are not obligate aptasia predators.

 

[cybermeez]

I never had a really bad aptasia problem and tend to try to find a natural solution to any given reef problem. I didn't have any luck with pepermint shrimp, they didn't go after the aptasia. I also had poor results with Kalkwasser paste and Joe's Juice. The former would mess up my calcium balance, and both burned anything near the aptasia. The butterfly fish lasted all of 3 days in my tank (not sure why).

Out of frustration I decided to try Aptasia-x. So far I've have the best results with it compared to all the other methods I've tried and will probably keep using it when the odd aptasis pops up here or there. Like a lot of things in this hobby I guess your mileage with Aptasia-x may vary. As long as the pepermints weren't killed by another tank inhabitant or a water quality issue etc. if they worked for you, I'd stick with them.

 

[jasony816]

I dont feed my 2 clowns alot, I feed them 1 time a day and just alittle at a time until they finish it all without any hitting the sand, so usually there isn't any thing leftover for the shrimp.

 

[tomtoothdoc]

my case is similar to cybermeez's. aiptasia-x works well for me in my seahorse tank. it does come back every now and then, perhaps a month later?
in my display tank however, the copperband butterfly devours every aiptasia even the ones way inside nooks and crannies:skull::skull:. i even ran an aiptasia elimination service for my buddies. they would bring me their rock/coral and the copperband would chomp on them right before your eyes:biggrin::biggrin:. that's just my case, i also have heard from others that their copperbands never touch their aiptasia.
but unfortunately some copperbands can be difficult to keep. don't really know why. it's more often than not that one would hear a story of how it lasted only a few days/weeks. my first one was in the lfs display for over 6 months, it died the next day in my tank (75 gal). i didn't get the current one until i upgraded to a 270+ gal. system, more than a year later.
it is a bit finicky, besides the aiptasia, it will eat mostly frozen food, the only dry food it will nip but not heartily are freeze dried mysis and small krill. btw it also loves feather duster and coco worm....found that out the hard way:irked: