Help out a Newbie with some Aiptasia killers?

[mrs.som]

Hi all!
I bought a secondhand 29gal biocube from craigslist that has some wonderful fish and corals AND aiptasia
We just moved to East Lansing and I spent more than our budget for the tank, but really need to get some sort of livestock to rid the tank of these pests! I have $6 in cash if anyone can help me out with some red claw crabs, peppermint shrimp or whatever you have that eats aiptasia. I know there are chemical methods for controlling them but as a newbie, I am not confident enough to venture into that.
I am willing to travel 30min in any direction

Thanks so much!

~Bonnie

[mrs.som]

Oh, and I might consider trading some of my red mushrooms (small, on chunks of live rock) for shrimp/crabs etc. Thanks!

[BK's Reef]

if you are getting alot of aiptasia it is probably due to bad water chemistry. Aiptasia multiply fast if you are high in nitrates in other words overfeeding or not enough water changes. How big are they? if they are medium to large sized the only thing that will really eat it are few fish. Peppermint shrimp only eat small aiptasia. Things that will eat it are peppermint shrimp(small aiptasia), silver scat(brackish fish), filefish and some butterflies but the butterflies will be too large for the tank. Best way to get rid of aiptasia in my experience is to either chip off the rock around the aiptasia. Another way you can get rid of them but you will only be able to do a few small rocks to 1 rock at a time is to boil water and put the rock in. But there is a danger of some popping in the rock if the heat cant escape.
cheers

[mrs.som]

Thanks!
I've only had the tank a few days but yes, I'm guessing water quality might be an issue. The guy I bought it from didn't seem too knowledgeable. I have not done a water change yet as we are still unpacking but probably can do one tomorrow. Should I do 10 or 20 percent?
The aiptasia are still fairly small, the largest is about a half inch in diameter.

Thanks again~

[Chelle's Ocean]

Not sure what types of LFS you have around you....but what about berghia?
http://www.berghia.net/marketprice.html
Maybe you could trade something in to your LFS for a berghia....even if you ask them to rent it to you for the $6 you have in your aqua-budget.
We have a club member trying to raise them. He will either trade out a mushroom or two, or a frag of something, in exchnage for a rock with aiptasia to feed his berghia.
It may be worth asking around your neck o' the woods

[adalius]

Peppermint shrimp only eat small aiptasia.

That's only kinda true. A lot of people get their peppermints from a LFS which has 1-2 in a tank or from online and who knows how they have them stored there, and they get them and they'll only pick at the small aiptasia. In that instance, you're spot on, they'll only eat small ones.

However, they appear to be able to learn to eat the large aiptasia and some sellers have started using 15-20 in a single clear bottom tank to clean up their live rock before they sell it. Once one of them figures out that it can tap the aiptasia to make it close up, then the others seem to pick up on it and start going to town. If you can find someone who does this with their live rock and buy one of those peppermint shrimp off them, odds are good that they'll continue to eat all sizes of aiptasia afterwards.

My last tank I did this and had a massive aiptasia (bigger than the one in my photo album on here) and it walked right up, tapped it a couple times so it sucked into it's hole, and then it evicerated it. My current tank I just bought two peppermints from Live Aquaria and they won't touch the big or even the medium ones in my tank.

So long story short, they can and will eat even massive aiptasia but you have to either find one that learned how in a community tank or get really lucky.

[jimsflies]

The peppermint shrimp that preuss carries have always eaten aptaisa for me. you only will need one in your tank to take care of them. I believe they are around $10.

[Sir Patrick]

I like to buy the pepermints in small groups. Improves the odds of getting one thay really love to eat aptasia.

[taziam10797]

Preuss also have Scats (fish) that eat aptasia like crazy. As your from E. Lansing Preuss is pretty close.

[cg5071]

Sweet, I didnt know about scats. Also If you dont have fish, there isnt a need to feed it. The shrimp will get hungry sometime.
If the tank hasnt been cared for and no livestock I would do like a 40-50% waterchange. Supposedly 50 is about as much as you want to do at once.