- Aiptasia's an annoying anemone.
It stings your coral, it breeds like a bunny,
and it never seems to go away.
We're gonna teach you three techniques
to eliminate Aiptasia once and for all.
what is Aiptasia?
It's a genus of sea anemones found in warm waters.
Just like other species of anemones,
they are photosynthetic, but unlike other anemone,
Aiptasia seem able to thrive and multiply
in a wide range of environments.
So much so, actually, that we classify them
as a pest in the saltwater aquarium hobby.
But where Aiptasia really become a pest to us
in this hobby is when they sidle up next to your corals
and cause them to retract, because over time
that can kill your coral.
And on top of that, Aiptasia babies are super tiny,
so you're not able to see everything
that comes in on your frags or on live rock.
So that leads us to eradication technique
number one, livestock.
If your Aiptasia problem is already quite large,
then you're probably gonna want to consider
adding different types of livestock, fish and inverts
that are known to eat Aiptasia.
You could first try peppermint shrimp.
They're super inexpensive and really easy to find
and they're captive-bred a lot of the time.
Sometimes they will eat the Aiptasia,
but other times you will find them eating
your frog spawn, your hammers, and your torch corals,
which is less than ideal.
If you do wanna try a peppermint shrimp,
be sure to keep your eye on it
to make sure it's not going after your corals,
and a great way to prevent that is to keep it
well-fed with meaty foods.
It's also really important to note
that there are several peppermint shrimp lookalikes,
some of which will not touch your Aiptasia,
so be sure when you're buying a peppermint shrimp
that it is an Aiptasia-eating species
such as Lysmata wurdemanni and Lysmata boggessi.
And I'm super sorry if I butchered the pronunciations.
Filefish are another great option,
and there are several different species available
but the bristletail filefish is known for eating Aiptasia.
It's also cool because they stay quite small,
so you could really put them in a tank 30 gallons or higher.
On top of all of that, bristletail filefish
are also captive-bred, which means they're usually
disease-free, they already eat prepared foods,
and we're not pulling them from the reef.
Just like peppermint shrimp,
they can go after your coral,
so be sure to keep them well-fed,
and it usually takes a couple weeks for them to settle in
before they go after the Aiptasia.
Another fish option that will eat Aiptasia
is the copperband butterflyfish,
but unless you are an expert,
and I don't mean sort of an expert,
but I mean a real deal expert who knows a ton
about copperband butterflies and how to care for them,
do not buy this fish.
It's a super picky eater, it does not ship
or acclimate well, and it can oftentimes
get bullied by other fish.
And the fourth and final livestock option
is by far the most effective, and it's probably
not the ideal option for most tanks.
We are of course, talking about
the Berghia, or Berghia nudibranch.
Super cool-looking sea slugs, Berghia nudibranchs
are so effective because the only thing they eat
are Aiptasia, but that means once they eat
all of your Aiptasia, they will slowly starve to death
so they are not ideal for most of us who only have
a few Aiptasia to take care of.
One of the really cool things about Berghia nudibranchs
is they will lay eggs in your tank
and their tiny microscopic babies will be able
to get into all those nooks and crannies
and kill those really small baby Aiptasia.
Berghia nudibranchs are fantastic for large systems
with a ton of Aiptasia, but if you have a smaller system
and wanna give it a shot, go ahead,
but once your Aiptasia is gone,
you're gonna wanna give the nudibranch away
to another hobbyist who has Aiptasia in their tank.
And a huge thanks to Devin at ReefDudes
for all of this great footage on Berghia nudibranchs.
If you haven't checked out his YouTube channel,
check it out now.
He is a fantastic reefer who puts out some amazing content.
We will link it below.
Moving on to technique number two
for killing Aiptasia, F-Aiptasia.
F-Aiptasia, or Frank's Aiptasia,
is a reef safe product that you apply
directly to the mouth of the anemone.
It's somewhat sticky and smothers the anemone
before it has a chance to throw out any larva.
F-Aiptasia won't mess with your water chemistry
but it will kill other corals
if you happen to get it in their polyps
Frank's Aiptasia is really quite thick
and needs to be vigorously and rather violently
shaken and stirred before each use,
and if it does dry out a little bit,
you can always add some RODI water into the mix.
F-Aiptasia is super easy to use, and just start by
turning off your return pump and wavemaker.
Shake and stir F-Aiptasia, and then draw it into a syringe
using either one of the two included metal tips.
Apply F-Aiptasia directly to the anemone.
It will retract, but just make sure it's completely covered.
Wait about 30 minutes, then turn the pumps back on.
F Aiptasia creates a shell over the anemone,
and since the product is caustic, it kills the Aiptasia.
A few days after applying F-Aiptasia,
you can just brush it away and the anemone will be gone.
This technique works really well for any Aiptasia
that grows from the bottom to the top of your tank,
but what do you do if the anemone grows sideways,
or perches underneath a rock and grows down?
Well, that brings us to technique number three,
Tunze Coral Gum combined with F-Aiptasia.
In this method, we are still using the F-Aiptasia
to actually kill the anemone, but we're using
the coral putty to secure the F-Aiptasia in place.
Just like before, turn off your pumps
and mix together a small amount of coral putty.
Then flatten out the coral putty and place
a generous amount of F-Aiptasia in the center.
Slowly and carefully cover the anemone,
being sure to secure the edges of the epoxy
around the Aiptasia.
Give it a few days, then remove the putty
and the Aiptasia will be gone.
Click here to solve all sorts of problems
from cyanobacteria and hair algae
to poor skimmer performance and cloudy water
and as always, everybody, thanks for watching.
Happy reefing, be well.
We'll see you next time.