Battle against Aiptasia

For some time now I’m having issues with Aiptasia in my frag/crab tank. It’s not the first time ever that I have Aiptasia in a tank, got it in the Red Sea Max at a rather early stage. Back then it was sufficient to inject them with boiling water. I tried Peppermint Shrimps a couple of times but they never been much of a success. Never noticed them even bothering with the Aiptasia and they always disappear within a very short time never to be seen again.

So now I have Aiptasia in the frag/crab tank. First I started injecting them with boiling water again, but I couldn’t reach all of them. Another problems is that the conditions seem to be better for them in the frag/crab tank, because they expand rapidly. Using just boiling water just wouldn’t do it.

I decided to get a couple of peppermint shrimps, just give them a try again. But after a couple of days again no trace of them anywhere and Aiptasia was still growing like crazy. What other options do I have…use a non-natural way with potions. Aiptasia eating fishes weren’t really an option, the tank is too small for that and the Nudibranches are way too expensive, people charge 15 euro’s a piece for them.

I decided to go to our local fish store and buy some Joe’s Juice, claimed by many to work perfectly. Followed the instructions, not killing too many at once, release near the mouth of the Aiptasia etc. And I noticed the Aiptasia shrinking away when it came into contact with the Joe’s Juice. Succes!! But unfortunately a day or two later they were back where they came from. It was too good to be true. I did keep on using it till every drop was gone, but unfortunately at that point the Aiptasia was still there.

I was about to just say f*** it and just leave it there, but then I saw an ad on one of the forums where someone offered 4 Berghia Nudibranches against a reasonable offer. He agreed on 40 euro’s and even got me 5 Nudibranches instead of 4. I slowly transferred them into the frag/crab tank taking no risk of losing them because of a rush or anything. After an hour of slowly acclimating I tried to release them, 3 of them I put in a shotglas and inserted the whole glass in the tank and 2 that didn’t want to let go of the cup I got them in I placed in the tank by hand. One of them immediately went for one of the Aiptasia anemones and killed it. They really worked! But I guess now is the hardest part, being patient. The Nudibranches don’t show much, I saw one of them this morning again, so they aren’t dead yet. Here is the picture I made this morning.

Hopefully I will see some results soon now, and if I’m lucky I can resell any offspring when my Aiptasia plague becomes less.