Aiptasia - What fresh hell is this??

[Lognor]

I've been battling aiptasia on one of my rocks for more than a year.  There's 1-3 popping out at any one given time on one corner.  Every time I think I got it, the little bastards pop their stupid little tentacles back out.  I've grudgingly accepted this dance we do back and forth because it has been completely localized.  A few weeks ago I found two of them attached to the lower return vents.  How in the hell is that even possible?  I tried to hit them with AiptasiaX a week or so ago and thought maybe I got one of them.  Today, they're both out sunning themselves laughing at me.  Other than continuing to try to get them with AiptasiaX or lemon juice, what the heck do I do?  Is it time to get a peppermint shrimp?  I'm worried about it spreading, but at the same time not having enough for a shrimp or nudibranches to take care of without munching on other things.

 

ugh...

 

[jservedio]

I used 31ga insulin needles with h2o2 - the needle is so fine it makes stabbing them easy. The syringe only holds about 0.3ml so you aren't loading your tank with peroxide. My dog is type 1 diabetic, so I have about 2500 of these on hand.

 

1 watt or stronger laser will do it too and is crazy fun to blast them. Probably dangerous, but all fun things are.

 

I loathe shrimp and never had luck with them. My peppermint ignored the aiptasia and munched my ricordea instead. If you can get a proven aip hunter sure, but they just laugh at you and fight your smaller fish for food.

 

Edit: you can buy needles at Wal-Mart or any pharmacy in most states without a prescription - 31 guage (or as fine as possible), 3/10ml, 30 unit u-100 (this doesn't matter, but makes you not sound like a junkie) is what you want. If you can't you can pm me.

[Tamberav]

I boil water on the stove....draw it up with a syringe (no needle)...and I sneak up and melt their asses with the boiling water. I then plunge back to pull out any melted remains.

 

Gets them every time unless your aim is poor.

[Thrassian Atoll]

I had good look with injecting them with lemon juice from the little lemon bottle.  That was a really long time ago though.  Things are probably like cockroaches nowadays though and could survive a nuclear bomb.

[Humblefish]

IME; it usually takes a natural predator (peppermint shrimp, matted filefish, copperband butterflyfish, berghia nudibranch) to get them all.

[Clown79]

I always use aiptasia x. It's always worked, just gotta smother them with it while no water movement is on.

[Lognor]

3 hours ago, Clown79 said:

I always use aiptasia x. It's always worked, just gotta smother them with it while no water movement is on.

I've been using the AiptasiaX, but clearly i'm not getting it.  The little bastards keep coming back in the same spots.  I'm going to try the lemon juice for the guys on the return since there's nothing near them, but the others are mixed in my zoas and each time I try to get them, I inevitably lose a few zoas.  Fortunately they grow right back.

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

[Clown79]

2 hours ago, Lognor said:

I've been using the AiptasiaX, but clearly i'm not getting it.  The little bastards keep coming back in the same spots.  I'm going to try the lemon juice for the guys on the return since there's nothing near them, but the others are mixed in my zoas and each time I try to get them, I inevitably lose a few zoas.  Fortunately they grow right back.

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Aiptasia can move so you gotta creep up on them and just put a bunch on them without touching the syringe to them. 

 

If you touch them, they pull into the rock and move.

 

 

[Lognor]

Went at them all with the aiptasiaX yesterday.  I found a total of 5 heads creeping out on one rock and on the overflow return.  we'll see what happens in the coming days.

 

Thanks all

[mcarroll]

On 2/3/2020 at 9:33 AM, Lognor said:

Went at them all with the aiptasiaX yesterday.  I found a total of 5 heads creeping out on one rock and on the overflow return.  we'll see what happens in the coming days.

 

Thanks all

They don't need to be out in the light to grow and spread.....you might have one or more in the hidden areas of the filtration in back, if so they'll continue repopulating the display "forever".  We had some growing in between the two layers of an overflow on a big 180 Gallon.  Some tanks just aren't very cleanable.  Nudibranchs are the only real answer in this kind of case.  (They will only eat aiptasia so there's no risk to the rest of the tank....only the risk that they will eventually starve to death when their job is done.)

[Lognor]

6 hours ago, mcarroll said:

They don't need to be out in the light to grow and spread.....you might have one or more in the hidden areas of the filtration in back, if so they'll continue repopulating the display "forever".  We had some growing in between the two layers of an overflow on a big 180 Gallon.  Some tanks just aren't very cleanable.  Nudibranchs are the only real answer in this kind of case.  (They will only eat aiptasia so there's no risk to the rest of the tank....only the risk that they will eventually starve to death when their job is done.)

I hit them all last week and haven't seem them yet.  If any of them pop up again, i'll take your advice and go with the nudibranches.  Thanks

[bpipher]

On 2/9/2020 at 12:01 PM, Lognor said:

I hit them all last week and haven't seem them yet.  If any of them pop up again, i'll take your advice and go with the nudibranches.  Thanks

I'll also double down on the nudibranch plan.  There's a few locals I know that have had great luck with them.  There's probably a few places to buy them but locally everyones using http://reeftown.com/

 

Note this is not necessarily a cheap course of action... If you have enough aiptasia they will breed though, at least until they eat all of the aiptasia.