Aptasia Problem - Not enough

[tvdao]

I had a bad aptasia so I got 5 peppermint shrimps and 1 copperband butterfly. Within two weeks, all of the aptasia are gone. Is my copperband going to die of starvation? he eats mysis but i am afraid that that won't keep him alive. Any advise?

 

[ac7av]

It its eating other food ill bet it will be just fine.

 

[leebca]

CCBs are primarily pod eaters. You'll want to vary its diet as much as you can, according to the guidelines of a carnivore fish. You'll find other food ideas in this post: Fish Health Through Proper Nutrition

As far as training goes, it gets harder to train captive fish to eat other foods the longer they eat one type of food. So, the sooner you start the training the easier it will be. Some suggestions for that are found here:
My New Fish Won't Eat -- Tips
and here:
Getting Fish to Eat the RIGHT Foods

 

[Aquanaut]

You'll want to keep him happy for awhile yet. Because my experience has shown that the pests have been given a topping and still may re-grow to the previous condition. Think of it as mowing the lawn and when possible Kalk syringe the beasts or extract using a hooked probe.

Good luck!

 

[loluckyve]

Joes juice is a miracle in a bottle for this. I bought a cb also and it will only eat clams in the shell, thinks it's royalty lol

 

[roscoe]

kalk paste is more cost effective than Joes juice but than I don't think any kind of mechanical/chemical approach will not rid you of aptasia. It is only a temporary fix as they will come back in full force times a million. A natural predator such as the Bergia nudibranch is the only thing I have heard of total success.

 

[jrgilles]

I'm hoping to breed some nudibranchs, and if its successful, I can help people out here for cheap.

I have a tank set up now that I'm trying to grow aptasia in. As I remove them from my tank with kalk paste, I'm sucking them into a 10 gallon tank with a heater, bubble block, and scraps of plexiglass. Once I have a good healthy supply of aptasia growing, I'm going to set up a 5.5 gal tank with nudibranchs. I'll then take the plexiglass scraps with aptasia on them over to the nudi tank to feed them and keep them alive. Once the scraps are cleaned, I'll somehow make sure they are clear of berghia eggs, and put them back to get repopulated.

We'll see how it works.

 

[Shane and John]

Well...Let me chime in....Aptasia is killing me....So..I have 10 bergia....I kalk paste each one that I see....and now am even ordering some peppermint shrimp....I followed the advice to get the bergia...They have worked well in my overflow ,which was ver heavily poppulated..however,I have seen no real change in my display...

I am very Anal when it comes to a pest free tank though..1 aptasia means I am not pest free..lol

jrgilles....Please do try and post of your successes....I also was thinking of trying to do this..

I have 150 gallons total in my system..

 

[jrgilles]

well do. Going to be a bit slow starting up, as I want to have TONS of aptasia in my 'food' tank before I introduce the first nudi's.

Once I have this rolling though, I should be able to breed a bunch of the nudi's

 

[roscoe]

Shane you are not the only anal one when it come to aptasia. I stocked my big system with dead rock for this very reason. Now I have 4 aptasia that I can see in my 270g!!!!! I am so tempted to dump a massive amount of kalk paste on them but from pass experience that is not the best thing to do as it will only release it's spores to other areas in my system and then I will have an aptasia farm again!! I wish the rocks they are on were easily removed to get a bleach bath! I might get a few bergia nudi and place one near each aptasia.

 

[Shane and John]

The First 3 bergia I got were Big....those went into my overflow..I personally witnessed the do work on the aptasia...I then got 3 more and put them in my display..I really saw no result...So I got 4 more on a group buy...Wow...they were tiny...They went into the display as well...
Its been a few months and I am still seeing new pop ups in the display..I try to paste em...But I also believe that makes em spread...So now I am gonna try peppermints as well..
I was tempted to try another cbb..the last one I bought was Carpet nem food...Now I am anenomie free so I might try one again if the shrimp do do their job...

 

[roscoe]

I thought about adding a CBB into the DT but then I have too many LPS that can possibly be some expensive meals for the CBB. I have also learned not to put anything that has the the potential to eat corals. I learned that the hard way! I got a mejestic angel from a friend that got it from a long time reefer. The angel was in captivity for probally 10 years and never touched a coral. So I took the chance with it and it did just fine for a few months and then I added some LPS colonies and it thought they would make a good meal! It took a while for me to trap that sucka. He finished off a few LPS colonies before he was finally trapped using one of my LPS as bait inside the trap!! So be carefull with teh CBB. I know you love your acans!!!

 

[Shane and John]

Rosco...thats why I have held off with it...I have got quite the collection going and am very leery of any suspect fish...
On a side note..I actually have two sticks in there now...Adam put em there and we are monitering their growth under the led's...Will post a thread at a later time..

 

[loluckyve]

Try joes juice it is a miracle cure, they will melt before your eyes

 

[roscoe]

Try joes juice it is a miracle cure, they will melt before your eyes

LMAO...... temporary fixes and FAR FAR FAR from a cure for aptasia!!!!!!!

 

[lvsuckerfish]

Well...Let me chime in....Aptasia is killing me....So..I have 10 bergia....I kalk paste each one that I see....and now am even ordering some peppermint shrimp....I followed the advice to get the bergia...They have worked well in my overflow ,which was ver heavily poppulated..however,I have seen no real change in my display...

I am very Anal when it comes to a pest free tank though..1 aptasia means I am not pest free..lol

jrgilles....Please do try and post of your successes....I also was thinking of trying to do this..

I have 150 gallons total in my system..

how long have they been in the tank for the nudi's? they will take time then one day you will look in there and barely see any alive...

 

[lvsuckerfish]

all the klak paste in the world will only make for an imbalanced system and forget it if the paste touches another coral it is like cryptonite on a coral but worse.... I personally never had luck with peppermint shrimp or anything to that sort unter then nudis... but this will not happen over night over a course of 3-4 months they will get all the ones in the creavises first then on to the ones out and about in the tank I found....

breeding them the only hard part is making sure you do not loos aptisia so they have something to eat so a over feeding a tank and lots of cheap lighting will grow but if you add one to the tank you can forget about the food source....

 

[Shane and John]

The first 3 nudis have been in for about 5 months....then then about a month later I got 3 more...then about another month I got the other 4.Like i said..they have worked well in the overflow...Im just getting tired of seeing em in the display..lol..Maybe if I can find a good deal I will try to get some more!!

I try to avoid paste but when I use it I am very cautious of my other corals..

 

[lvsuckerfish]

I wouldn't they will breed in there as it is lol they breed like rabbits lol i added 5 to my 100 system and sold 10 and still had my five

 

[Shane and John]

ok...well maybe i just need to chill and give it some time..I just hate looking at em..