Best fish to eat Mushrooms & Aiptasia

[wickedt1]

Hi all,

I have a 600g reef tank that has been taken over by 100s of larger blue mushrooms and large Aiptasia.

Was thinking of adding either a Raccoon or Copperband Butterflyfish to take care of all the mushrooms and Aiptasia. Are these the best choice of fish to handle this task? One better than the other? Or does anyone a better suggestion? Any is welcomed

Main reason I’d like to rid my tank of the mushrooms and Aiptasia is that I’d like to start adding SPS and do not wish to be dealing with the mushrooms and Aiptasia after adding numerous frags. The population will just continue to grow and threaten the corals.

Will the Butterflyfish remain peaceful with my current stock of fish? (see end of msg)

I’m more concerned about my current fish and shrimps than the Butterflyfish, but to realize the cleaner shrimps may ‘disappear’. The leather corals would be an acceptable loss and if needed I could move the Gorgonians and Blastomussa corals to my holding tank.

I do realize I’ll need to take out the Butterfly prior to adding the SPS and ensure I keep the nutrients low. Catching the fish may take some time thou; been there, done that.

I have massive amounts of live rock and do not wish to destroy the aquascape I’ve created; therefore scraping is not an option I want to take.

Thanks ahead of time for any suggestions anyone may have.

-Tony


Current stock:

Anthias
Bartlett
Lyrtail

Wrasses
Read Velvet
Leopard
Exquisite

Cardinalfish
Kaudern
Spotted
Orange Lined
Longspine

Green Chromis
Canary Deep Water Damsel
Gold Assessor Basslet
Kole Yellow Eye Tang
Purple Tang
Yellowhead Jawfish
Pseudochromis Fridmani

Many Cleaner shimps (Lysmata amboinenis), these I fear Butterfly will eat


Various leather corals:
Gorgonians
Blastomussa coral
Pearl bubble coral

 

[Oceanus1]

Copperband Butterfly may work and then it may not. They seem to have an individual taste for aptasia. I would try one with some peppermint shrimp. The CBB will sometimes only eat a portion of the aptasia, leaving it to regenerate back again. Peppermint shrimp usually eat smaller aiptasia and may even eat the small pieces left over from the Butterfly fish. The nudibranch Berghia verrucicornis will eat aptasia also and that may be an option for you. The shrooms you can send to me!

 

[wickedt1]

Oceanus,
I tried the peppermints months ago, about 10, lol, they 'disappeared' and haven't seen since a few weeks after adding them. Someone must have had a good dinner. Now the aptasia are HUGE, with lots from 1/8" to 2". I've started to inject hot Kalk into the big suckers, hopefully that will take the larger ones out.

As for the shrooms, I'd definitely hook you up if you were local. Although you do live nearby, AZ, perhaps shipping wouldn't be too bad. LOL, I have lots on the sand, and most my rocks are covered. I could grab a bunch off the sand...

If you're interested, see what shipping would be from CA, 94513. I could add a bunch in a zip-lock baggy and get a heat pac, they might make it. don't image it to weight more than 1 pound.

 

[Oceanus1]

I could see where the aiptasia and shrooms could be a very large problem in a tank that size. I was hoping the peppermints would be an option for you since they are cheap and you could probably get a deal on a bunch of them. The large aiptasia you have would be too big for them anyway. The nudibranch Berghia verrucicornis might be the way to go for getting rid of the aiptasia. They breed these guys now and I've heard they work well.
You could also put in a few of the Copperband Butterflyfish and see what happens.
About the shrooms, I would be glad to take some off your hands! I will pm you soon.

 

[wade1]

Raccoon butterflies will eat mushrooms as well as aiptasia (much more readily than copperband) and they tend to be moderately reef safe. Another (larger) option would be a regal angel. More and more have been coming into the hobby recently and seem to work well... but be forwarned... they might take a liking to polyps, clams, or some lps as well!

 

[wickedt1]

I like the Regals, they too would eat the aiptasia?

Do Regals get terriotial like some of the other angels? Or it fairly peaceful?

Would my clean shrimps be safe with either of them? The shimps are quite large now, over 3 yrs in captivity, lots of meat on them.
Not like I have a choice, doubtful I'd be able to catch them to move to my holding tank.


Could 2 Racoon's co-exist in my tank? 120"'X40"x30" (lwh)? Might take a long time for just 1 to eat all the mushrooms and aiptasia :lol:

 

[wade1]

The angel would not bother the shrimp.

I think they will eat aiptasia, although I'm not 100% positive.

I don't know about 2 racoons, but my gut instinct is that they would be fine together. You would also be surprised at how little time it takes them to devour a group of mushrooms once they decide that they like them!

 

[mystic7]

I had a huge aiptasia infestation, mostly because I liked them at first. When you have a FOWLR you'll take any non-fish life forms you can get

Some of them were 4" or more! Anyway, I have a CBB and he didn't even look at them. Recently I added a Blue Face Angel and within 2 weeks ALL aiptasia were gone from my tank. I am completely aiptasia free. I don't know how reef safe a Blue Face Angel is, but I've read here that Majestic's are pretty reef safe and they're from the same genus as Blue Face's. You might want to try one of those.

 

[DrHank]

I'm not sure about the mushrooms. The butterflys seem to be hit or miss. I used peppermint shrimp in my tank and it worked great. However I'm not sure how they will interact with the cleaner shrimp you allready have. I'm also not sure if your Anthius would chow down on them.

I think that the racoon butterfly is more likely to try the mushrooms than the CBB.