Aiptasia, More peppermints or CBB?

[mikestanked]

I have a 29 gallon FOWLR that has a reoccurring AIPTASIA issue? I've dosed my aquarium at least 3x with Aiptasia-x, it works but you must do it correctly and find all of those buggers. After the last dose of A-X i purchased 3 peppermint shrimp in hopes that they would find the ones i missed and even take care of new ones. with all my chips lying within the tiny brains of those shrimp, they failed to meet my expectations And now i have at least 4 more dime size aiptasia that i can see

I'm in between a rock and a hard place(literally)
Question; do i even think about getting 3 or more peppermint shrimp to have a small army?
Or do i bite the bullet and purchase a CBB(copperband butterfly fish), that i will eventully have to return (for 1/3 store credit, or sell by other means)? due to the fact my aquarium is only 30g, i dont want a fllood of negitive people telling me im a bad person for doing such.

that's why Im in such a bind! and i will never pay for a fish as ugly as the bristle tail file fish!

[AquaRick]

I've found that using a lighter, small cooking torch, or soldering iron works best. It only works well if you can remove the rocks. Make sure to rinse the affected area after you light those pests up.

[lakaiguy]

Huh I only have one peppermint shrimp and he absolutely destroyed my few aiptasia.

They were very small so that might of been it.

Maybe if the aiptasia are secluded to one rock you can remove it and let everything die off then put it back in

[mikestanked]

Well that's another can of worms in itself. if i were to dismantle my aqua scape i would probably just use my remaining Aiptasia-x.

here in lies another road in which i do not wish to proceed down, if i were to remove the rock and go with your suggestion, couldn't that potentially kill off beneficial bacteria and Coraline algae? And if i were to just dismantle my rock and treat them individually I'm worried that my current livestock would be stressed out to the brink of death. and i do not own a QT of have a sump nor do i have any friends that are in the SW game at the moment.

I appoligize if i seem a bit pessimistic, but its kind of overwhelming at the moment.

IDK maybe im just lazy and don't want to deal with all the house work!

[mikestanked]

Originally Posted by lakaiguy

Huh I only have one peppermint shrimp and he absolutely destroyed my few aiptasia.

They were very small so that might of been it.

Maybe if the aiptasia are secluded to one rock you can remove it and let everything die off then put it back in

i guess peppermints are really hit or miss(mostly miss for me), i thought about not feeding my CUC any scraps and just target feeding my fish. because i tend to overfeed and they get all the left overs. and my peps are all about 1/2"- 3/4" body size and now that i'm looking at the glass anemones there about 1/2" to 1" in size.

unfortunatly my Aiptasia are everywhere i even have 2 in my power head!

[AquaRick]

Originally Posted by mikestanked

Well that's another can of worms in itself. if i were to dismantle my aqua scape i would probably just use my remaining Aiptasia-x.

here in lies another road in which i do not wish to proceed down, if i were to remove the rock and go with your suggestion, couldn't that potentially kill off beneficial bacteria and Coraline algae? And if i were to just dismantle my rock and treat them individually I'm worried that my current livestock would be stressed out to the brink of death. and i do not own a QT of have a sump nor do i have any friends that are in the SW game at the moment.

I appoligize if i seem a bit pessimistic, but its kind of overwhelming at the moment.

IDK maybe im just lazy and don't want to deal with all the house work!

No it wouldn't kill off your bacteria and coraline. I'm not suggesting to use a flame on all your rock...just the locations where the pest anemones are. If you do one rock at a time, your fish aren't going to care one way or the other.

[mikestanked]

coolio, well after doing a bit of research of my own, I've decided not to use your burn method. from what I've read (i have no personal experience) that method is unreliable. im going to add 4 more peps and cut back on my "over feeding" hopefully that will encourage the peps to scavenge.

if all else fails, drastic measures will be taken!