Aptasia - A never ending subject

Just to post a little story. I have been out of the hobby for quite some time and by no means any type of expert. I did however pick up a bunch of livestock from someone here that was pretty infected.

I noticed a starving Copper Banded Butterfly that soon died after acclimating. Well after a while the Aptasia started coming out. Some grew up to 3-4 inches and at that volume and size, in a large tank, no way can it be efficiently managed by adding berghia, CBB, Peppermint Shrimp...all the "eaters" won't eat if you are feeding the tank and if you have very large Aptasia (IMHO).

So for the record, I pulled the offending rocks, soaked each in a fresh water dip, that caused all the hundreds of bristleworms to fall out, the Aptasia to go to the sides of the buckets, and any remaining Aptasia was injected with lime juice. The lime juice injection killed them right away then I could brush them off with a toothbrush.

Then soaked and inspected the rock for any remaining...got them all 100%

It did set me back on Coraline growth maybe, shocked few things, but it all recovered nicely after a few weeks an zero return of Aptasia.

Just thought I would share my recent, personal experience.

Mike

They are a PITA for sure. Chemicals like AptasiaX makes them spread even worse.

For the very large aptasia I would first hit w/ aptasia X, this will melt them down some and make them easier to overcome, and add the largest berghias you can get, 1/2" or 3/4" preferably.
They can be completely removed from tank w/ berghias, may need to add to sump as well.
I have dealt w/ massive infestations this way successfully.
Good luck.

I hear that f aptasia works wonders! Thanks for sharing

Aptasia x worked ok for me if I could reach them but the ones in the vertical crevices were a pain. I bought a couple peppermint shrimp. One of them annihilated the aptasia. It’s so voracious that I have to look for it to feed it first before my rock nem or he will eat the food from the corals mouth lol. Good trade off 😉

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Originally Posted by PatientZero

They are a PITA for sure. Chemicals like AptasiaX makes them spread even worse.

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That's been my experience as well, if you don't have anything added to finish the job. CBB's and file fish are cool, but hit and miss and they can only reach so far, but berghias can reach most every area nook and cranny.

Most important if you are selling your system contents you should disclose that up front...not going to start the mojorano discussion...

:0

If you starve the shrimps they will eat them i had them when i first started this tank(wasnt told rock had it) i added one small peppermint and about a month later i had none till this day i dont have any aptasia and the same shrimp is in there..i think a lot of the times people gets shrimps and sell them once the aptasia is gone but like covid it will always be in your tank lol

Getting Berghia to breeding size and patience is the key, once they get rolling they will wipe everyone out, the trick is having a QT with live rock and aptisa to keep feeding the Berghia for round two. OH yeah I am looking for live rock with aptisa no coral.