Removing aiptasia in an 8 gallon

[cubuffs]

I want to know what works. I have a cleaner shrimp and a damsel and 20 frags. Please help

[ndrobey]

Get a syringe. It doesn't need a needle, so you can get one without a prescription. Boil some vinegar and suck it up into the syringe. Get real close to the anemone's mouth and shoot the hot vinegar right into the mouth. It will croak.

[Goldfox]

Red Sea Aiptasia X. Works like a charm.

[SunWyrm]

I've been using kalk paste it works great and never makes my nice anemones angry.

[cubuffs]

Thank you all very much.

[xmas_one]

Also peppermint shrimp!

[NinjaReefer]

pepermints worked for me, but they have to be kinda hungry to do it. If they are in a well fed tank they may ignore them. Its like their second choice food if nothing better is around.

[Murphs_Reef]

Yep peppermint went in at 5pm and by 8 that night I had less Than 50% left! next morning.... Not one aiptasia remained... Ace

[hauksanger]

But won't the vinegar kill everything else in the tank too? I just notice aiptasia on my new zoas, and they are soooo close to the zoas itself.. I've got a 5 gallon, so little room for mistakes.

[brandon429]

simple

 

lift out entire rock structure they are on, set this on a towel. corals dont mind, leave the fish and shrimp in the tank.

 

take a blue jet flame lighter, windless type, and shoot them for about 1 mins straight in each withdrawn spot. put rock back in tank.

[basser1]

Get a couple of berghia nudibranchs and be done with it. Aiptasia is all they eat.

 

I've used aiptasia X, but the problem is when it melts or explodes, or whatever, it releases "daughter" cells and aiptasia start popping up in other places.

[Goldfox]

Prob with the inverts is once the pests are gone they still need food.

[hauksanger]

Problem is, they are literally on the zoas, some of them on the stilk of the zoas itself. I've put it in quarantine for now, tried to scrape off and put som putty over the place, but noticed that there are approximately 10 more when I turned the rock around..

I've heard that peppermint shrimps eat them, too.. do they eat other anemones/ corals as well?

[Murphs_Reef]

Peppermint shrimp should be grand with other corals.. Let him focus on the nasties and fish him out if you worried

[ndrobey]

But won't the vinegar kill everything else in the tank too? I just notice aiptasia on my new zoas, and they are soooo close to the zoas itself.. I've got a 5 gallon, so little room for mistakes.

You only put the vinegar into the aiptasia. A little bit that goes into the tank isn't going to matter.

[hauksanger]

I'll try the vinegar and get a peppermint if it doesn't work. I'm just worried about hitting the Zias, seeing as they are sooo close...

[basser1]

Again, berghias will only eat the aiptasia and leave the zoas alone. Problem solved.

[hauksanger]

Well, we don't really have them here in our LFS. Hard to get by a lot of things

[Mojado]

You need the guy on the right.

 

 

[basser1]

Well, we don't really have them here in our LFS. Hard to get by a lot of things

 

I don't have any LFS at all, so I order mine on-line:

 

http://www.saltyunderground.com/index.php?cPath=6

[hauksanger]

Far as I can see, they don't ship to Norway

I could get the peppermint shrimp, and it's my sturdy plan B, but I only have so much space, and I'd rather have the shrimps I really like the look of. I'm trying Aiptasia X atm, it seems to be working, but we'll see.

[hauksanger]

So far, so good. Found 2 small aiptasia heads that I either missed or they just grew out (that fast, though?). Planning on hitting them again tonight.

A couple of the zoas have tiny little bulges on them that I suspect to be more aiptasia. How long will it usually take before a "seed" will grow into a clearly visible anemone? If I'm successful tonight, I'd like to hold the rock in quarantine until it's certain that no more fiends are popping up.