what would happen.....

My suggestion is to get a wrasse that eats the bristleworms (Melanurus Wrasse) and some peppermints or a copperbanded butterfly to eat the aiptasia. Both the Melanurus Wrass and the Copperband are very cool looking fish also...

 

I'd be afraid of killing off all the good stuff on the rock along with the bad. I second what Adam said re: peppermint shrimp etc. Also, a booming bristleworm population tends to signal over feeding? I know that when I eased up on the feedings they gradually became less common. I still have some, but they're small ones, and mostly in my sump.

 

Thats probably going to kill of most everything on your rock which would require you to "re-cure" it which will take several weeks to months but would be very affective.

I am actually in the process of letting all my rock dry out, then its going in a kalk bath to ensure everything is dead. After that I plan on letting it cure and cycle for months before i add it to me next system.

It's nice knowing you are starting with completely pest free rock but it is a long process....

 

I have a peppermint in my biocube that killed 20-30 aptasia in about 2 weeks. You can borrow him... LOL. He will do the trick if you dont over feed. PPL always wonder why they buy them and they wont eat aptasia and its because 9 out of 10 times there is tons of other food that taste way better so they dont bother. Come buy this live rock i have left and some coral and the pepp shrimp is all yours my friend.

 

Posted By Waverz on 09/14/2009 06:15 PM
Thats probably going to kill of most everything on your rock which would require you to "re-cure" it which will take several weeks to months but would be very affective.
I am actually in the process of letting all my rock dry out, then its going in a kalk bath to ensure everything is dead. After that I plan on letting it cure and cycle for months before i add it to me next system.
It's nice knowing you are starting with completely pest free rock but it is a long process....
A quick way to kill everything and start over is just to boil the rock. Then in a matter of hours your ready to start cycling the tank again.
For aptasia you have peppermint shrimp and copperband as was said ealier and you can also use Berghia nudibranch.
Here is an article on the subject from reefkeeping.com http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-.../index.php

 

The good thing about Berghia Nudibranches is that they only eat aiptasia anemones. The bad thing about them is that they only eat aiptasia anemones.

I looked into getting them for a while too, but there were so many bad things about them that it's just not worth it:
They are expensive, over $5 a piece and usually require their own shipping. Not many places carry them so it's a supply/demand thing.
They have a short lifespan so they need to reproduce regularly in aquariums, so they recommend buying at least one per 5-10 gallons so they can "find" each other to reproduce.
Unless there is a ton of aiptasia to eat, the ones you add don't live long enough to get to reproduction age and they all die.
Even if they do eat 99% of the aiptasias, as soon as that 1% can't be found by them they die, and then that 1 or 2 aptasias spread and the cycle is repeated.

I would definitely save your money and either cook the rock/start over or buy a fish/shrimp to rid the aquarium of the pests.

 

Plus if one of your fish were to try to eat the nubibranch the fish will probably die...nubibranches can release some toxins that could be really bad...I went with pepermints and they did the trick...and I agree about the copperband being a pretty fish...I would get one but my tank is way way too small...Some day.