any way to get rid or aiptasia?

[sjwalton]

help its everywhere. theres five of the little bastards now and i feel like there will be more coming. Any way to get rid of it. I have read peppermint shrimp are good but they eat other coral as well. any suggestions.

[yrureefing]

Try spraying them with hot water or kalkwasser.

[Sahin]

I had good success with hot kalk paste.

Syrine it directly into thier mouths.

 

Might take one or two apllications, but it does kill them.

[NaNO ReeFiN]

Peppermints do not eat other corals. There have been a case here and there of them eating em' but they for the majority will not. I've had two in the past and no problems at all.

[nc35]

Use No Aiptasia from Seachem...it killed all of my Aipstasia in my reef tank. You need to inject the big ones with a #18 needle and for the small ones just apply directly. Excellent product!

[Dave ESPI]

I just did, 39 threads.. the answer is in them all. sheesh !X)

 

PS: Im NOT being sarchastic.

[BustytheSnowMaam]

I tried to remove mine because I read things that said they were the worst thing that could ever happen to your tank. Not necessarily true.

 

If you don't overfeed your tank, they won't reproduce and will remain quite innocuous (not harming anything).

 

I wouldn't try the boiling water trick- I did it and my one aiptasia became 12 a week later. If any part of it survives, it can reproduce. Many people say the kalk thing works and they're probably right, I'm just into being as natural and non-interventional as possible. So, IMO, I would leave them alone. If they do seem to spread, get rid of them the natural way and get a peppermint shrimp- just be sure to get a peppermint and not a camelback- check some pics out so you know the difference. Camelbacks eat corals.

Tasha

[hhasty79]

Ah...just for the record, I had two peppermints who ate all my aiptasia within a day. One then proceeded to tear up a ricordia polyp, eat all the feather dusters, and pick mercilessly at my other soft corals. It recently died, and the other peppermint has been as docile as can be....so it really depends on the individual shrimp.

 

Maybe you could borrow some from another local reefer.

[Fishiebusiness]

All my aiptasia was taken care of by a peppermint shrimp as well. He's very good and doesnt touch any of my corals. He did eat many of the feather dusters that came with the LR tho.

[BustytheSnowMaam]

This is what it says about aiptasia in the Book of Coral Propogation Vol. 1 by Anthony Calfo (I was too lazy to go upstairs and get this last night). It seems from reading it that the best solution is to just leave what aiptasia is there alone and don't overfeed your tank.

 

"Truth be told, in low-stocked and underfed aquarium system, Aiptasia can live innocuously without propogating or threatening neighboring corals. However, many new aquarists and experienced reef keepers with heavy populations of fish put sufficient amounts of food into aquarium systems that encourages the proliferation of 'glass anemones'. "

 

"Numerous techniques for controlling Aiptasia abound, but none stand out as safe, succinct, or hassle-free. Natural predators and chemical potions are dubious for perhaps obvious reasons. Physiologically, anemones are so similar to many corals and reef invertebrates that it cannot be guaranteed that a vehicle that destroys Aiptasia will not also harm desirable invertebrates and polyps. Such is the case with the commonly recommended Peppermint Shrimp that are not discriminating and are inclined to eat zooanthids or corallimorphs as well as Aiptasia sp. Likewise, chemical agents designed to kill Aiptasia have been implicated in harm to some invertebrates like corallimorphs and octocorals."

(page 408).

 

My experience was, I had one Aiptasia anemone. I got satisfaction out of injecting it with boiling water. A week later I had 12. I'm considering a peppermint, knowing the potential consequences.

Tasha

[Strife]

use the cheapest method... spay it with baking soda...

[hhasty79]

Yes, spay it so it can't reproduce.... although i've never heard of spaying anything with baking soda...and how do we know it's a female anyway?

 

(sorry stryf3, i couldn't resist)

[Strife]

yup, baking soda...people have used it to raise PH...and if you spray a lil amount in a aptasia's mouth,,,it would kill it...

i have used it to kill mine...but there's a safer way to kill it...

 

well i dont advise anybody to try raising PH with baking soda. but it can safely be used for freshwater tanks, swimming pool, or ponds..

[Strife]

unless of couse that was a female joke from hhasty79 ... LOL

[GobyMan]

I got a peppermint first off when my cycle finished to deal with the two small aiptasias I had on my rock...two days later they were all gone. I have had no problem with him munching on any of my softies.

[arpanlib]

hi,

will they disturb my corals and anemones??

 

what do i do when i kill them with klakwasser??? how do i remove them from the tank???

 

i have a coral and that has not opened since 3 weeks and there is a aiptasia near it. could it be that the bugger is stinging the coral???

 

help would be appreciated.

 

arpanlib

[hhasty79]

Yes Stryf3 I was joking ;-)

[GEAS]

Butterfly fishes (Chelmon rostratus and Chaetodon kleinii) are aiptasia eaters - they are part of their regular diet. And a good thing about them is that they rarely pick on corals.

 

I have also read somewhere about B. Verrucicornis which is a natural predator of aiptasia. The good news is they only eat aiptasia. The bad news - they starve to death after all of your aiptasia's gone.

 

And personally, I don't suggest going chemical against aiptasias because using CaOH2 or HCl could dramatically change the pH of your nano. You might hurt the other inhibitants more than the aiptasias.

[NavyNano]

I had one medium size Aiptasia that try as might I couldn't get rid of , he was anchored way down deep in a hole in my LR. What I did was get some TWO LITTLE FISHES epoxpy. Just mixed it , chased the aiptasia down into his hole and buried him there with the mixed putty. The putty hardened and now has coralline growing on it , so it doesn't look bad and I haven't seen the aiptasia since. This worked for me only because it was the perfect set up .