On Nov 1, 6:38 am, Salty Underground
wrote:
On Oct 31, 8:16 pm, wrote:





wrote:

Nice summary; I'd still like more info about theBerghia.

Mike

Saltyunderground.com has been helping people solve their aiptasia
problems for years. The following summary of aiptasia control options
are based upon 5 years of conversations with hundreds of people and
our own experiences. It's no secret that there are not many hard and
fast rules in this hobby. The following is a general review of these
options. Each hobbyist experiences may vary. We hope you can use this
information as you consider what method is best for your aiptasia
problem.
BerghiaNudibranchs
Strengths:Berghiaeat only aiptasia anemones, nothing else. They can
crawl all over your tank to eat the aiptasia you see and the ones you
do not see. If acclimated and added to a well maintained tank, they
are hardy invertebrates. They may reproduce to help speed up aiptasia
eradication.
Weaknesses: It may take time for theberghiato solve heavy aiptasia
infestations especially if you do not get the correct number of
berghiafor your situation. If theberghiaare not at least ?", they
should be maintained in a small tank or a container of at least 1
gallon of water until they grow larger before they are placed in a
display tank.
Predators: Primary predators are peppermint shrimp and nocturnal
scavenging fish including coris wrasses that hunt at night.
Peppermint Shrimp
Strengths: When they work, they work fairly well. They typically eat
aiptasia fairly quickly.
Weaknesses: Some stores do not know what type of peppermint shrimp
they are selling. So the shrimp you get may or may not be the kind
that will eat aiptasia. Peppermints would rather eat fish food and may
not eat large aiptasia. They can be destructive to corals, desirable
anemones and clams. Smaller peppermints may not acclimate well.
Predators: Fish which eat ornamental invertebrates such as hawkfish,
various dottybacks, various wrasses, some puffers, some triggers,
eels, ect.
Copperbanded Butterflyfish
Strengths: When they eat aiptasia, they are usually fairly quick about
it.
Weaknesses: Difficult fish to acclimate to a home tank. It may take
several fish to find one that will live. When they live, they are hit
or miss on eating aiptasia. Some are easily bullied by other fish and
it can be difficult to get them to eat foods added to the tank. Some
may nip at corals and clams. Not an appropriate fish for tanks under
50 gallons.
Injected Chemicals and Potions
(includes Kalkwasser preparations such as homemade mixes and store
bought preparations; lemon juice; boiling water, ect.)
Strengths: Inexpensive (when used on a small number of aiptasia) and
fairly easy.
Weaknesses: Risky since this technique often makes the aiptasia
problem worse by spreading small pieces of the dying aiptasia around
the tank. Those pieces grow into a lot of small aiptasia. May cause
injury if you accidentally apply to corals. Can only apply them to the
aiptasia you can reach. Can alter tank pH when used in large doses in
smaller tanks.
Manual Pulling and Scraping
Strengths: Free and fairly easy.
Weaknesses: This is a waste of time. Pulling and scraping may make the
aiptasia problem much worse by spreading small pieces of the aiptasia
around the tank. Those pieces grow into a lot of small aiptasia. It
may be * to get at all of the aiptasia using this method.
Soaking Rock in Fresh Water
Strengths: Free
Weakness: Don't bother. It will kill all life on the rock except the
aiptasia. Aiptasia can live through fresh water soaking, even for
days.- Hide quoted text -

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You can read info on our website of course. You can also read the
following info from Anthony Calfo. Some of it is a little dated, but
it is still some of the best technical info available. Or just googleberghiaor aiptasia.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-0...ure/index.php- Hide quoted text -

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One more thing worth mentioning. Occassionally, we've had people
confuse majanos anemones (another type of pest anemone that can spread
in a tank) with aiptasia. Berghia only eat aiptasia. Although we have
not heard of any peppermint shrimp eating majanos, some many eat them.
So it is important to make sure you have aiptasia and not majanos if
you want to treat the problem effectively. They can look a lot alike
especially to people who are new to the hobby. If you are unfamilar
with majanos, google majano to check out some pictures.

There are a couple traits that will help tip you off to what you have.
A majanos tends to have shorter tenticles with rounded, sort of bulbed
tips on them. Aiptasia usually have longer, thinner tenticles with
points on the end.

Also, majanos tend to attach to the surface of the rock and the base
is easy to see and dig under. Although this is not always true,
aiptasia tend to find a hole or crack and lodge themselves down into
it, making the base of the aiptasia harder to see.

There can be color difference also. In many cases, if you have
stronger lighting the majanos can take on a green color in parts of
the bodies, especially the disk, in addition to brown. Aiptasia don't
exhibit green coloring. It is possible that majanos are the same brown
color as aiptasia especially if you have weaker lighting. So color is
not nessesarily the best indicator to ID the species.