aiptasia control

[Mike-words]

Has anyone had any success with Berghia Verrucicornis for aiptasia control?
Thanks

 

[mr_X]

you need a lot of them and they die when they run out of food. a manual method is much better. joes juice, kalkwasser paste...etc.

 

[XxVooDooxX]

I've watched videos on YouTube about joes juice. Amazing stuff!

 

[tjm80]

Lemon juice injection worked for me.

 

[Innovator]

Joe's Juice is just kalkwasser

 

[Mike-words]

I was kind of hoping to stay away from chemical

 

[Zer0]

I agree. Unless you have tons of aiptasia, you wouldn't need the Berghia. Manual methods mentioned above will do wonders.

I understand you want to stay away from chemical solutions, but the lemon juice/kalkwasser methods are natural methods. They work effectively and as long as you use them in controlled doses it won't cause any harm to your tank. However, i must say that if you have tons of these aiptasia i would recommend spacing out the doses you use. Only kill a few a day if you have a decent amount of them. You don't want to kill a lot of them in one shot otherwise your water chemistry could take a turn on you.

I'm sure others would recommend a Berghia nudi, but the problem is, after they have devoured all of the aiptasia, they no longer have a food source and it could be a real pain to try and relocate them to a better home, let alone removing them from your tank. Only use the Berghia if it's your last hope.

Just my opinion of course.

 

[trackfast]

Peppermint Shrimp; it doesn't always work though.

 

[Wael El-Dasher]

How about a well behaved Copperband Butterflyfish? Anyone have success with that type of fish? They're supposed to be great in controlling aiptasia, or glass anemones, in the reef aquarium.

 

[PrettyFishies]

CBB can be hard to keep because they are hard to train on prepared foods. Some don't even eat Aiptasia. Its a toss up. There are several methods people use to get them to eat, but you must be prepared to deal with the potential situation where they don't eat and starve.

I am getting one and i am simply going to make sure it's eating in the store. If you can get a tank raised one, you've got to be fine, right?

They are gorgeous fish.

 

[Wael El-Dasher]

That's a good idea. In reality I've seen my LFS feeding flake or pellets to all their fish and I'm always amazed how excited all the fish attach the food. I'll keep an eye on the specific fish before buying it.

 

[Mike-words]

Could you give me some instruction on the lemon juice method

 

[tjm80]

I just went to the local pharmacy and bought a syringe for 25 cents, sucked up some lemon juice with it, and carefully injected the base of the aiptasia with the lemon juice. It retreated back into its hole and I just squirted a little more in the hole for good measure and haven't seen it since. It's been about 3 weeks.

 

[mr_X]

you would need a syringe. stab it into the flesh of the anemone and squirt lemon juice in it.

 

[Mike-words]

Thanks plan to start tommorow.

 

[Mike-words]

No harm if cleaner shrimp shred lemoned aiptaisia a few hours later.

 

[mr_X]

dunno. you'll have to wait and see.

 

[iDream]

You could always take the rocks that they're on out if possible and torch them with a lighter