FamousGuy Posted October 8, 2002 Share Posted October 8, 2002 is there anything (coral-wise) that will overgrow or sting aiptapsia to death? I've had an explosion of them in my tank, and doubt i'll ever get rid of all of them. I started off with one big one, now there are small ones all over the tank in random spots(not feather dusters). When I first got my LR i cut the big one in half and put boiling water on it and it still lived....i guess it's time to get some kalk Link to comment
printerdown01 Posted October 9, 2002 Share Posted October 9, 2002 Get a pepp ... he will at least keep them away! Link to comment
FamousGuy Posted October 9, 2002 Author Share Posted October 9, 2002 hi printerdown, I really want one but i've heard so many horror stories about them (and i want a flame hawk) they're pretty much out of the question Link to comment
victorology Posted October 9, 2002 Share Posted October 9, 2002 what kind of horror stories? i love my 2 peppermint shrimp... aiptasia was starting to run wild on my tank but they took care of everything... i did dose b-ionic into some of the bigger ones but the peppermints worked great... i did hear stories of some peppermint shrimp not even touching aiptasia though... i guess it's kind of hit or miss but i think they're the best way to get rid of those pests Link to comment
Crakeur Posted October 9, 2002 Share Posted October 9, 2002 do a search on aiptasia and you will find numerous methods for ridding your tank of the beast, or at least keeping them in check. Link to comment
kimura Posted October 9, 2002 Share Posted October 9, 2002 I got one about a week ago, even tho I've heard all the horror stories. As of last nite, mostly all of my aiptapsias are gone! (I got a rock with the stuff all over it) He doesn't seem to be eating or bothering with anything else. The only time he comes out of the rocks is when I feed my fish, other than that he's ok. Link to comment
Crakeur Posted October 9, 2002 Share Posted October 9, 2002 if you want to rid yourself of the pests, try this stuff. it works great, is reef safe and fun as hell to use. http://www.marinedepot.com/a_ad_cm.asp?CartId= Link to comment
chvynva916 Posted October 9, 2002 Share Posted October 9, 2002 It seems most of the confusion regarding peps is getting the right one. They are easily confused with the camel shrimp. There are also two types of peps, you want the lysmada wurdemae (that spelling is not right, but its close). If you get the right one, peps seem to be pretty efficient at ridding aiptasia. Mine is great, doesn't bother my corals, and has befriended my sebae. Link to comment
Physh1 Posted October 9, 2002 Share Posted October 9, 2002 Originally posted by chvynva916 It seems most of the confusion regarding peps is getting the right one. They are easily confused with the camel shrimp. There are also two types of peps, you want the lysmada wurdemae (that spelling is not right, but its close). If you get the right one, peps seem to be pretty efficient at ridding aiptasia. Mine is great, doesn't bother my corals, and has befriended my sebae. I would agree. Species is key when you get your peppermints. You LFS usually won't know the diff unless you got a really good fish person there. My suggestion is to get a few books and get to notice the differences in them and be able to tell what is what yourself. You get the right ones and they are great....wrong ones they will be horrible. I've had good luck with copperband b'flys and raccon b'flys but in nano's they are usually WAYYYY to big Cameron Link to comment
kimura Posted October 9, 2002 Share Posted October 9, 2002 That's one thing I did before purchasing my pep, was to make sure it was a pep. But the guys at aquatic reassured me so I went with it, and I haven't seen any i'll effects yet...... other that no aiptasias. Link to comment
MrConclusion Posted October 9, 2002 Share Posted October 9, 2002 The "syringe full of boiling water" method has problems. That water is not very hot after travelling through a metal needle which is surrounded by a great heat-sink (your tank.) To test this, try squirting it on your hand in the tank, and you'll be surprised how not boiling it is. A needle is just too good of a heat exchanger, and the volume of boiling water is just too low. I suspect that the reason this method works at all is the fact that the Aptasia are being injected with fresh water. Link to comment
Smokey Joe Posted October 9, 2002 Share Posted October 9, 2002 A hard stinging coral like an elegance will kill aptasia easly. Unfortunatly, as I'm sure someone will point out, those don't tend to do too well in nano-reefs. I have one aptasia anenome that I can't seem to get rid of. Right now it's on a collision course with a xenia colony, I'll let you know what happens. The kalk paste method does work, unfortuanly you can't really use it with corals in the area, and I wouldn't use it if there are fish in the tank either. You could always just seal up the aptasia's hole with epoxy. I've used this method with some success, the only problem being live rock is quite porous, and it can be tough to tell what escape routes are available to the anenome. Link to comment
Crakeur Posted October 10, 2002 Share Posted October 10, 2002 back when I had my 60 gallon reef, I would take my elegance coral and move it towards any aiptasia. I would actually run the elegance's stingers over the pests and they would die in no time. You are right that elegance corals are not for the nano so that method won't work here. Use Seachem's stop aiptasia to rid your tank of them. Works wonders. Link to comment
ajroahkni Posted October 10, 2002 Share Posted October 10, 2002 Originally posted by MrConclusion The "syringe full of boiling water" method has problems. That water is not very hot after travelling through a metal needle which is surrounded by a great heat-sink (your tank.) To test this, try squirting it on your hand in the tank, and you'll be surprised how not boiling it is. A needle is just too good of a heat exchanger, and the volume of boiling water is just too low. I suspect that the reason this method works at all is the fact that the Aptasia are being injected with fresh water. I've had great results with a 60cc syringe. It's one of those HUGE mothers, without a needle or a receptor for one, just a molded plastic "point." I believe that they're used for flushing out wounds and stuff. Anyway, because it's plastic, somewhat thick and holds a substantial amount of water, it holds temp pretty well. You can actually burn off parts of the aiptasia (it starts to go white and stringy). However, I've noticed that when the water cools, it don't work anymore. Also, I've found that if you shoot them enough w/ hot water, they begin to walk. Syringe is great for sucking up aiptasia off of rock when they're on the move. I'd assume that extracting them this way also does well in preventing the foot from regrowing, as - w/ enough exertion - you're sucking the whole thing up into the syringe, incl. water and particles from the base. Surprisingly, they get really tiny and fit into the point no problem. Link to comment
FamousGuy Posted October 10, 2002 Author Share Posted October 10, 2002 The most common horry story is that they wont always eat the aips. Another is that they irritate corals, and even sometimes they're eat polyps and smaller sized mushrooms *but like someone said this could be because people are getting confused with camel shrimp. I think i'l order some of that stop aiptapsia, i'll let you all know how it goes Link to comment
spectre Posted October 10, 2002 Share Posted October 10, 2002 Another natural method to rid these pests is from a Berghia verrucicornis nudibranch. Aptisia is all they eat. They are small (around 1/2 inch or so) and expensive (right around $25 a piece). But they do an amazing job. The key is to make sure you keep track of them in your tank, because once your Aptisia is gone, they will starve to death. Just another method to rid our underwater worlds of freeloaders :P Link to comment
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