Aptasia!!!!!!?

Question

I have a 36 gallon bow front with a HUGE Aptasia problem!!!! Does anyone have any suggestions how to rid my tank of this pest??? I've try Joe's Juice (which seem to work, but I work 2 jobs and don't have time to keep on it). I bought a Cooper Band (which seemed to work the whole 2 weeks that he live). II have like 4 Peppermint Shrimp (they don't seem to be doing anything!) I just saw some stuff online for "Berghia Nudibranchs". They sound good (but so did everything else)! Does anyone have any suggestions on how to rid the Aptasia or any experience with "Berghia Nudibranchs"? Thanks in advanced for the help!! Oh..and one more thing..I don't want to take out my Live Rock and place it in the sun light!! Thanks Agian

Answer 1

How long have you had the peppermint shrimp? I have 3 saltwater tanks, and put peppermint shimp in all to control Aiptasia on new live rock, and they worked fine (after a while) for me.

They don't do much at first, because they hide for about a week, but after that, they should start to kill them, starting with smaller ones. If you've had yours longer than this, you may be feeding too much, and they're getting all they want from what you give your fish or other inverts, or there may be larger fish they're still hiding from if they're being harassed. But from my own experience, once they get comfortable in the tank and if they are hungry, they'll clear a tank of Aiptasia (and sometimes other polyps if they're really hungry!).

I haven't tried any of the nudibranchs other than the lettuce ones as algae control, but from my experience with these and what I've read about them, they tend to be "eaten" by your filters long before they have eradicated their intended "targets". I checked wetwebmedia.com (link at the end) for their view of these, and apparently they are getting good reviews there.

Answer 2

I don't have salt water tanks, so this was new to me and I wanted to find out about it, what it was, and how to handle it. I found the following websites which may be of help to you: http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/6279/LettersAiptasia.html , http://www.wetwebmedia.com/aipfaqs2.htm and http://www.garf.org/news7p1.html . I hope one or all of these websites can help you out in some way. I was just amazed while reading about it, and how out of control it can get, it was really quite interesting. I suppose "how to get rid of it" is even more interesting. If/when you fix the problem, I would LOVE to hear how you dealt with it if you wouldn't mind dropping me a short note. Best of luck to you! ;o)