What eats Aiptasia in a saltwater tank?

I have some aiptasia x, which does seem to work alright, but I was wondering if there is a fish or crab that will eat it..like a natural cure, instead of having to use chemicals.

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  • Depends on what you have in the tank already. Peppermint shrimp are usually pretty good at getting rid of Aiptasia.

  • Peppermint shrimp are great, scientific name Lysmata wurdemanni. A group of three will handle most aiptasia problems in no time. Use the Aiptasia X to kill the big ones, then follow with some peppermint shrimp to handle the rest. There is also the aiptasia eating nudibranch, which is more expensive and more sensitive but works well, the berghia. The problem with the nudibranch is it only eats the glass anemone, and will starve once it has removed them for you while the peppermint shrimp will eat other foods as well.

    If this is not a reef tank, then copperbanded butterfly fish have been known to eat them (some individuals are better than others and it is a case-by-case success rate). The butterfly is “reef compatible with caution” and is known to nip at some corals. Raccoon butterfly fish will also sometimes eat the pest anemone, but are rarely safe in reefs. There are several less common and more expensive butterfly types that are also known to eat them.

    Also the red hairy hermit crab (grows very large) will eat them, and is not reef safe although sometimes they are sold when young as reef compatible. Scientific name Dardanus megistos.

    So in short, the peppermint shrimp are one of the best things to help with the pest anemone. Shrimp can be senstive to change, so be sure to acclimate carefully when you add them to the tank. If yuo do not have a reef, the fish or crab are another alternative (and good for more aggressive tanks where shrimp might get eaten).

  • Berghia Nudibranch. These nudibranchs eat only the pest anemone know as Aiptasia.

  • What Eats Aiptasia

    Source(s): https://shrinke.im/a8aNi

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